Capstone Project — Antara Baijal

Routes Extend From Roots

This multi-panel installation is an exploration of diaspora, hybridity, and commodification through the use of material processes that create a connection with culture, the body, and memory. This practice aims to explore the fundamental question of mobile identity - whether, through the lens of culture, identity can transform with movement.

As the central motif, the bindi is depicted in its shifted meanings across spiritual, political, cultural, and ornamental contexts. I use repetition and gestural traces to explore how identities are embedded in tradition yet transform through diaspora.

The work uses materials like vermilion (kum kum) and turmeric (haldi), which are rooted in cultural rituals, ceremonies, and everyday life, and introduces fragility and sensory aspects to the work. Gestural traces are key to the work; they echo the body's presence and absence. These powders are sifted, smeared, smudged, and pressed into the printout of the bindis. The work falls from the wall to the floor, depicting a fluid nature and the continuous field of material presence, creating a trace of its own.

BFA

Foundations