સફર (journey), 2024 is a series of works inspired by the newspaper archives at the McMillan Memorial Library in Nairobi. These mixed-media works on paper are combined with a metal tea urn – each a representation of objects that were carried across the border in 1972 at the time when Idi Amin expelled 90,000 Asians from Uganda. These works are a facsimile of the visual material I have been collecting / researching, showing the obfuscated narratives that are not easily recalled or remembered. By using a phototransfer technique to incorporate images derived from the newspaper, combined with a drawing of images from my family archives – they trace the trajectory of parallel stories. The circular shapes reappear as cut outs from the postcards and as gold leaf as a form of mapping and dispersal of people and communities.
Mixed media (gold leaf, pencil, gouache, photo-transfer, postcards, plaited silk, object, chain and tea urn); 80 x 30 x 15 cm
From the series સફર (journey), 2024
The powers surge, keeping the ghost inside Mixed media (gold leaf, pencil, gouache, photo-transfer, postcards, plaited silk, teddy bear, pink chain and tea urn); 80 x 30 x 15 cm
The powers surge, keeping the ghost inside (detail)
The powers surge, keeping the ghost inside (detail)
Hands outstretched, rooted and entangled. Look up. Wait for it. Mixed media (gold leaf, pencil, gouache, photo-transfer, postcards, plaited silk, magenta chain and tea urn); 80 x 30 x 15 cm
Hands outstretched, rooted and entangled. Look up. Wait for it. (detail)
Hands outstretched, rooted and entangled. Look up. Wait for it. (detail)
Longing for another dance between the trees, always in spite of everything. Mixed media (gold leaf, pencil, gouache, photo-transfer, postcards, plaited silk, framed family photograph, purple chain and tea urn); 80 x 30 x 15 cm
Longing for another dance between the trees, always in spite of everything. (detail)
Longing for another dance between the trees, always in spite of everything. (detail)
I’ve seen you, dappled by light Mixed media (gold leaf, pencil, gouache, photo-transfer, postcards, plaited silk, ghungroo, blue chain and tea urn); 80 x 30 x 15 cm
I’ve seen you, dappled by light (detail)
I’ve seen you, dappled by light (detail)
