Long hours involved in distinct inquiry processes and practice in the studio during my master’s programme engulfed me to an extent where a distance developed between me and my home.This distance slowly morphed into a relationship of an altered association with my home and family members. This further led to an attempt at tracing my roots by examining the physical and psychological aspects of what we understand as “home”. Initial analysis aided in finding new strands which eventually helped me in tracing the journey of my home through memories and oral histories of the family members, to the event of partition which caused multiple displacements. Stitching these strands by delving into the alternate histories surrounding me, I discovered my family was no different than the many other migrants living in Delhi. The displaced and forced-into-migration nature of the physical structure is yet again being evoked with my father’s retirement, which will force us to leave our present residence of over 70 years, a space which has seen the experiences of three generations.
I am interested in listening to, and recording the narratives of markets, local residents of a space, the architecture and looking at spaces—physical and in our mind— which inhabit the word ‘home.’ My work maps archives as a realm of art practice and is assisted by certain anthropological methods. I’m trying to tread in the borders of its past, present and future and at the same time living through it. My practice grows close to the aspect of the private /personal narrative of a family and processing it in a conversation with ideas of displacement, relocation, erasure and migration. The intention of my body of work is to provoke thoughts on two main questions:
What makes an existence of a home? एक घर होना क्या होता है?
What does it mean to have a home? एक घर होने से क्या मतलब होता है?
Audio Visual link of my art practice, concerns and interests as a practitioner- https://vimeo.com/475483703
