Finding One's Identity

Artist Krupa Makhija shares with Society how the state of lost identity led to the creation of works of art that helped people interact with their bygone memories.

- Trisha Mahajan

Gone are the days when India was known for producing only a brigade of doctors, engineers, teachers, and other usual professionals. The country is now home to some very exceptional and talented artists in the world, and Baroda-based Krupa Makhija is indeed one of them. Trained as a painter, her practice also includes printmaking, working on installations and sculptures. With an inclination towards choosing mediums like burnt canvases, used objects and architectural waste, her works are symbolic representations of her personal experience in regard to culture, language and identity, a practice she describes as ‘Culture Amnesia’. Through her works, she addresses her thoughts about incomplete identity which occurred due to many reasons like migration of her parents from Sindh, Pakistan, distorting culture and tradition. Her works revolve around the concept of destruction, nostalgia and a constant looking back into the past so as to understand the present.

Born in North Gujarat in 1983, Krupa’s family migrated from Pakistan during the partition in 1947. She was among the first of the many generations of her family to be born in post-partition India. Stories of partition and the experience of her family members greatly impacted her to express the dilemma of people from that era who were seen as outsiders and her own experience as a migrant artist.

Ever since her childhood days, the artist was inspired by drawing, art and its various forms. She chose to take her love for the subject ahead and received a degree in Bachelors in Fine Arts (BFA), followed by Masters in Visual Arts (MVA) from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda.