City wiithout a home

Targeting slum dwellers, migrant workers, and the urban poor, I produced this work in response to the growing use of bulldozers as tools of power. Although demolitions have been labelled in recent years as "development,," "cleaning," or "beautification," it is crucial to make clear they are acts of erasure.

Though they are machines passing for humans, the beings here fit suits rather than human forms. The suits represent politicians, developers of real estate, and bureaucrats. Their arms have become mechanical claws akin to bulldozers, with marks including "Policy,," "Order,," "Notice,," and "Action." The language that seems authoritative yet hides brutality.

Not only are the two words "जुगि-घर"(Home), not nouns. They are orders. The irony resides in the fact that individuals under persecution have just room for rest and living; they have no luxury. Even so, in the view of power, that is too much.

Strong colours are chosen not so much for visual appeal but more to create conflict, therefore mirroring the vivid lives being destroyed. Within stories, linguistics, and cultural settings exist. Their vitality contrasts with the cold tool of corporate brutality.

The poor are marked as illegal when they ask for land. Developers are considered as visionaries when they purchase land. With this print, I wish to face exactly this hypocrisy.

To me, this is not abstract. I have talked with families that lost everything in a flash. This does not amount to "redevelopment." It is displacement hiding under progress.

This works as my visual protest against a repressive system, my disobedience. Moreover, one should keep in mind that every destroyed house represents a lost memory.