My work expresses the taut fragility of existence as perpetually temporary.
My family and I are ‘Non-Resident Indians’ or NRIs, having lived in the UAE since 1989. Our right to remain in the UAE hangs on a temporary balance despite all these years.
At the end of each limited residency permit, we must justify the right to remain or we are given 30 days notice to leave. Permanent rights are impossible for most.
My work focuses on the actual and perceived sense of tension and unease as an Indian migrant.
Darker-skinned people find their skin lightened in studio portraits, perhaps in a bid to emulate in the hopes of integrating.
Always a migrant, never an immigrant.
