India. A place where authenticity comes knocking on my door. Pieces of clothing drenched in rich blues, reds and greens breathing on ropes in verandas (backyards). The aroma of steaming hot chai in the morning and the everlasting echoes coming from the high-spirited streets where animals and humans find a way to coexist, all come in the frame to create a vivid picture of India in my mind.
“Phantom Homeland” illustrates the essence of my home country, India, within my temporary stay in New York City. This project pays homage to the rediscovery of my vivid memory that travels along with other essentials in my suitcase, waiting to get wrapped and unwrapped as it moves along the path...
Through translating images on fabrics, I personify the sights that remain fresh in my mind by associating the freshness of my memory to freshly washed clothes as moments hung on a rope, swaying in the air of nostalgia. A sight witnessed commonly in the backyards of Indian homes.
The visual narrative that weaves the piece together unfolds from my memory of everyday moments experienced in India. The notion of recollection makes me look at memories in a portable way. Moments in my mind never stay in one place as movement holds an integral space for them to breathe and stay alive, no matter where I find myself to be.
The collection of memories from my cultural background come to life with the help of traditional fabric prints and artifacts to lead me through a visual journey that seeks comfort and familiarity in a place that is close yet far from my roots.
Experiences come and go, the only ones worthy of a space in my memory remain. And I shall find a way to keep them alive in the images that give me life, in the images that circle back to moments where my life found its colorful beginning.
