Existence: Who is present here? at Bath Spa University, Sion Hill, Bath

This exhibition reflects on the presence of the unseen — on how belief, memory, and energy shape our understanding of space and self. The idea began with memories of entering holy places as a child, where large sculptures of gods and goddesses stood before us. They were both present and absent — held not through logic, but through feeling. These spaces became sites of reflection, where people came to speak, hope, and heal — not always knowing who or what they were speaking to.

Growing up in Indian culture, I saw my mother’s quiet rituals, her connection to belief through prayer and practice. Visiting these sacred spaces with her, I observed how such places became pauses in everyday life — holding personal and collective emotions: joy, fear, anxiety, longing.

In this exhibition, I work with fragile, overlooked materials like interfacing paper, recycled cloth, organic pigments such as henna, geru, multani mitti, garden waste, and oils. These substances carry histories of ritual, care, and domestic labour. Through shredding, tearing, layering, and staining, I let the materials guide the form — becoming bodily structures, abstract maps, or ghostly remnants of something once held.

The work moves between the visible and the invisible, asking who is seen, who is believed, and how presence is felt. It holds space for what we do not fully understand, but continue to carry — in body, in memory, in silence.