Ghar am Masala
2025
objects
various spices
photo: Krystof Kriz
The homes, made of spices, with their smells, transport me to my home country, India,evoking a deep sense of place and rootedness, while the row of houses with slanted roofsare strongly reminiscent of a street in a German village where I now live. ‘Ghar’ is ‘home’ inHindi, my mother tongue. The title is a play on ‘garam masala’ which means ‘hot spices’and city names in Germany like Frankfurt am Main.
The work explores the complex nature of diasporic identity. I’ve migrated to a new country,culture and language several times. One thing that has constantly moved with me is atreasured box of spices. The Indian home can be viewed as an institution, where spicesplay a central role in shaping the social, cultural and emotional dimensions of identity andwellbeing. They‘re used for daily meals, rituals, ceremonies and healing.
News From Somewhere, 2025, exhibition, Atelierele Scanteia, Bucharest, Romania
