Devhara

Artist Statement

Devhara, (“house of idols” in my native language of Marathi) is a multimedia body of work that weaves together three generations of women: my mother, my daughter, and myself. And it grapples with how my work can or should reflect my migrant identity. I investigate these topics through my mother’s objects of worship, which are imbued with political realities and tangible memories and which to me have become objects of mourning. I explore the resonance of these items from my mother’s home altar as significant forms while inserting our bodies (my daughter’s and mine) to create abstract images/meditations/visual prayers. In this work I abstract the objects of my mother’s devhara not as a negation but as an act of creation, along with materials of my mother’s daily rituals resulting in new aesthetics, new critical concepts, new subject matter, and new moral imperatives.