Tanya Kumar (Yr 2)
still from video of mixed-media
60cm x 84cm
Title Chalo chai peete (mere nani ka ghar) let's drink tea (my maternal grandmother's
house)
| Chalo chai
peete (mere Nani ka ghar)' - let's drink tea (my maternal grandmother's
house) - is a
stitched
assemblage of torn paper works laid on grass, accompanied by tea in a
handmade clay mug
reinforced with papier-mâché. in Hindi,
Nani means
maternal
grandmother -
a specificity that doesn't exist in English. My Nani and her home held all
the fragments of
my identity safely, even the contradictory ones and the broken pieces. Each
fragment in the work is marked with lines - personal maps - and words in
Hindi script and Hindi transliterated into English. This transliteration
mirrors my
experience of existing between cultures. The materials and process directly
embody my concerns about re-placement and the imperfect reconciliation of
fragmented selves. Tea, beloved in both British and Indian culture, became a transformative
agent, changing the quality and texture of the paper itself - just as culture
permeates and
alters us. Working with Hindi words became an emotional excavation, unearthing
neglected parts of myself: Hindi buried deep, English layered over. The act
of tearing
and stitching
mirrors how I constantly dismantle and reconstruct my sense of self,
attempting to
reconcile
parts that don't fit neatly together. The visible tears and stitches remain
as evidence of
this
imperfect process. The fragments don't align perfectly - edges overlap, gaps
appear, drawn
lines break
and intersect. These imperfections are essential; they reflect how identity negotiation
is neither neat nor linear - how reconciliation of disparate selves is
necessarily
incomplete.
"Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools" - Salman Rushdie The piece physically embodies this contradiction. The sensory experience extends beyond the visual - the smell of tea, the sound of rain, and the tactile quality of stitched fragments invite viewers into a multisensory encounter with cultural hybridity and fragmented identity. The incorporation of natural elements makes the work vulnerable and impermanent, reflecting the precarious balance of existing between cultures. |
“Tanya Kumar is a British Indian artist working through the complexities of cultural hybridity and chronic illness. Through mixed media work incorporating mark-making, using my hands as implements, and natural elements, I create work that tears apart and stitches together fragments of identity, making visible the ongoing, imperfect process of belonging and reconciliation.”