Muscle Memory

Muscle Memory
2024
Indian women’s clothing, cell culture dishes

Owned by artist

A healthy muscle fiber is composed of multiple myofibrils in a bundle. A muscle cross-section is a slice through a bundle of muscle fibers that reveals its internal structure. It appears as a combination of small, circular shapes, and muscle stem cells (satellite cells) are clustered around the periphery of a myofiber. When a myofiber undergoes injury, the satellite cells fuse into the center of the fiber and begin proliferating. A clear sign of an injured fiber is one with centrally located nuclei. Once the satellite cells have proliferated, they fuse into the damaged material of the muscle fibers and work to stitch together the area of injury, strengthening the fabric of the muscle.

During my research in the Olwin Lab, we observed that once a satellite cell has fused into a muscle fiber, it stays integrated as part of the newly regenerated fiber for as long as we can observe. Despite fully regenerating, the muscle bears the scars of what it has endured. In this way, memory of physical trauma is integrated into the very fibers of our being.

My art practice explores how our bodies can preserve traumatic experiences long after they occur. The Kashmiri Pandit Genocide of the 1990s, that my mother survived, is one of the most forceful yet least-known ethnic cleansings. By being forcibly separated from my ancestral home and assimilating into American culture, my art is an act of resistance and reconnection. I use traditional Indian women’s textiles with an extensive cultural history and a memory shaped by previous wearers to bridge the gap caused by the rift. Each fabric has its own DNA signature and carries the memory of its wearers, draping through the fabric as it would have done over a woman’s body.

In the case of disease or mutations such as associated with VCP (Valosin-containing protein), the muscle is unable to regenerate and instead there are rifts of nuclei with unregenerated muscle fibers. This rift is like the one I feel to my culture. As an artist of the diaspora, I gather broken stories and sew them together to repair the breakage. There are parallels between the cellular process and working with the materials. The materials aren't just illustrative of a cellular process, they are the salve that attempts to repair genetic breaks and mutations and bridge a severed generational link. In the center of the piece, where the worst injury is present, the muscle fibers are unable to regenerate, and the fabric reverts to its original form.