Vadehra Art Gallery presents ‘Apna Ghar’ an exhibition featuring the works of Chandan Gomes, Nishtha Jain, Vicky Roy and Samudra Kajal Saikia.

Based out of the two largest metropolitan cities in India, Mumbai and Delhi, these four artists investigate the concept of ‘ghar’ through a series of works that unhinge the popular notion of the home being an exclusive private domain. The works attempt to dismantle this easy definition and address the complex set of rituals, relationships and processes that go into making a home of one’s own. The exhibition brings together particular projects that have emerged out of the artists’ acts of re-looking and documenting their own lives, in relation to daily rituals, everyday spaces, people they share their lives with, and contemporary conditions of livelihood. In a way these are equally internal and external processes of looking. How is the idea of ‘home’ or ‘ghar’ conceived? What kinds of spaces are we addressing here? In other words these works are journeys made by the artists that have led to the uncovering of underlying connection between people, with objects and spaces, and everything else which make up one’s ghar; a journey leading to moments of self-discovery, anxiety and reassurance.

Curatorially this show started out in a rather organic manner, with the photographic works of Vicky Roy and Chandan Gomes setting the initial frameworks. Both photographers had been working around the concept of documenting their homes – in the case of Roy it was a series that gives an insider’s perspective into the daily lives of the boys at Salaam Balak Trust, a home for street children in Delhi where he grew up, and for Gomes it was a return to his parent’s modest house in old Delhi as an adult and a photographer. Vicky Roy’s photographs are poignant frames in black and white that draw out the characteristics of what makes this temporary space a home - from the daily rituals of cleaning, studying and common dining, to curious portraits of young boys on the brink of adulthood sharing their lives. Chandan Gomes’ cluttered and colourful interior offers a different perspective. Brimming with objects and devoid of people it tells a very personal story about the people who live there, their likes, obsessions, habits and beliefs, through the inanimate objects that populates their home.

Extending these camera conversations is the film by Nishtha Jain, a Mumbai-based filmmaker. Her self-critical documentary, ‘Lakshmi and Me’, offers a nuanced look at her home as a shared space. This film on the life of the young girl who works at her house, and the unexpected new bond that develops over the period of making this film, puts forth a new set of questions about the invisible imprints of the people and events that makes one’s house a home. The film also throws up questions about class and social behaviour in India. On a similar political note is the work of Samudra Kajal Saikia, whose project ‘Disposable House’ has been an ongoing effort to engage with questions of home as space, as security, as ritual, and as disposable and sustainable. Working across mediums like poetry, artists books, videos, paintings and performances, Saikia’s work moves away from the purely personal into looking at home and home-making as a political and social act. In his work the disposable house becomes a metaphor for security at a time of increased migration, displacement, and mobility.

It is Vadehra Art Gallery’s vision to incorporate new voices from the contemporary and curate artists/works which speak from today’s perspective, and we are pleased to introduce three new artists to our list – Nishtha Jain, Chandan Gomes and Samudra Kajal Saikia. Vicky Roy was part of our earlier photography show ‘Click! Contemporary Photography in India’ (2008) and is showing with us for the second time.