WOSP

Nalini   is a family portrait. In fact it is an exhibition full of portraits, including the artist Arpita Shah’s self-portrait as a white flower rising up from a pond with petals about to burst open.  Nalini  is the Sanskrit word for lotus, it is also the name of Shah’s maternal grand mother. The lotus and other flowers are used as symbolic motifs throughout the exhibition alluding to femininity and the cycle of life, death and rebirth.  Nalini   speaks of four generations of women who were all born in India, but who spent significant parts of their lives elsewhere. Shah’s pastel infused photographs were made in Ahmedabad,  Mehmdhabad, Mumbai, Mombassa, and Nairobi. The collection is enhanced by old black and white photographs plucked from her grand father’s attic. She also uses objects to enrich this story of family, time and migration. Those pastel shades of pink and blue and occasional greens and yellows are soft and  gentle  in the warm light of both India and Kenya.  Gen