of belief and belonging
a series
of Belief and Belonging grew from my interest in performative acts that unfold in quiet, private spaces.
I look at the female body and compare it to the djinn; both are seen as othered, threatening, and suspended in a parallel realm.
The way we occupy space becomes its own language, and when no one is watching, we forget that performance. I began to wonder how those gestures, the ones tied to everyday rituals, could endure once the act was over. These forms are imbued with the memory of those moments, while the performances remain undocumented, absorbed into the deceptive stillness of the white, terracotta surface.
Pehla Qadam (First Step)
Concrete slab, concrete bricks, white-glazed terracotta tiles, water, soap dish
93.4 cm x 64 cm x 16.2 cm
Baithak (Sitting Space)
Plywood, white-glazed terracotta tiles, mirror
93.4 cm x 105.1 cm x 96.5 cm
I keep returning to questions of what remains unseen.
How do purity and impurity coexist? How are the sacred and profane blurred within the same gesture?
I think about the rituals of cleansing that mark our daily lives: when does the simple act of washing become a performance of faith? When does repetition turn into worship?
I am drawn to the way belief attaches itself to the body, to material, to habit. Perhaps these forms are less about resolution and more about holding the contradictions of devotion, shame, and desire within the same quiet space.
Ghusl Khana (Spiritual Bathing Area)
Plywood, white-glazed terracotta tiles
87.3 cm x 182.8 cm x 76.7 cm
Roohani Qadam (Spiritual Step)
Plywood, aluminum sheets, white-glazed terracotta tiles, mirrors
106.9 cm x 102.1 cm x 102.6 cm
of Belief and Belonging continues to evolve as a reflection on faith, intimacy, and the spaces we assign to both. I see these sculptures as living entities; vessels that hold memory, residue, and silence.
For me, they are almost suspended somewhere in between, like a pause between breath and prayer.
In their stillness, they ask for contemplation.
I hope you are able to give that to them.
Kona (Corner)
Plywood, white-glazed terracotta tiles, mirrors, glass bottles, rose-water
61 cm x 61 cm x 91.4 cm
Taas (Chalice/Vessel)
MDF wood, white-glazed terracotta tiles
60 cm x 125.2 cm x 60 cm