About her recently unveiled chandelier sculpture The Trapeze that hangs in the Rani Mahal of Neemrana’s Tijara Fort Palace Hotel in Alwar, Rajasthan, Khursheed Nariman states that it represents "an act of faith in our fellow human beings…We let go of our supporting bars in the faith that the other will catch us… When the faith is justified, our confidence grows and the act of letting go and catching becomes a joyous dance, a flow… We leap and swing and fly!” Invited to execute this work of art, the sculptor wrote to Parsiana that "liberated from our fears, we can together realize unimagined potential, flourishing in the beautiful swirl of life. This requires practice and commitment on everybody’s part. But it is something worth committing to.”
The 15 ft x 7 ft art work in iron and fiber was inaugurated by art historian Dr Pheroza Godrej on February 27, 2022. "Post the making of it, I had the privilege of the room being named after me, the Nariman Mahal, as my artist name is K. R. Nariman,” wrote the sculptor. The R in her name stands for her father, retired Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Nariman.
Top, from l: Rohan Alva, holding daughter Zarina, his wife Nina Nariman holding son Cyrus,
Dr Sanaya Nariman, Dr Pheroza Godrej, Khursheed Nariman, Rohinton Nariman, Silloo Patel;
views of the sculpture; Khursheed
Khursheed narrated the driving force behind her works. "The interconnectedness of life lies at the heart of my work… We share our humanity as we share our planet, tied together in bonds of mutual dependence not just between human beings but also with animals, forests, seas and rivers.” Stating that bonds of "friendship, love, cooperation, helping, sharing, appreciating, communicating... is what nurtures the essence of our humanness,” Khursheed said that "our ability to transcend the limits of anthropocentric (regarding humankind as the most important element of existence) thinking and care for our fellow creatures and the planet is what might save us from impending catastrophes that climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecological destruction could wreak on us.” Khursheed had told us earlier, "I construct and sculpt commonly found objects, flora and fauna along with animal figurines” (see "Interconnected,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, July 21, 2019).
The artist stated that the two years of the pandemic brought our shared destiny more sharply into focus. "As an artist, I feel impelled to respond to the exigencies of my era… I think of the artist as both the one who records her times and the one who dreams of better times… My vision of a linked humanity has emerged even stronger from this… Life is a network of relationships and (English poet) John Donne’s 17th century lines ring truer than ever: ‘No man is an island.’”
Neemrana Hotels and Resorts that focuses on restoring past historic structures into modern day heritage hotels, run(s) 18 resorts from Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand in North India, Kerala and Goa, according to their website.