Dreams of nightmares

A construction site in Kashmir. Girls at play. It seems mundane - until you notice the violence lurking in every frame of Nilima Sheikh's art

- SHRIMANTI SAHA

Art can delight and inspire. It can fill a space with beauty, share messages of solidarity, spark creativity. But art can also hold a mirror to uncomfortable realities, invoke shock, and make one question old beliefs. For more than 40 years, Nilima Sheikh’s art has been doing the latter.

Two works stand out to me. Construction Site, from her famed series, Each Night Put Kashmir in Your Dreams, was made between 2009 and 2010. It’s a large painting and, as the title suggests, depicts a construction site in Kashmir. Workers mill about in the foreground, completing mundane tasks, while residents and the valley's natural beauty form the backdrop. It’s a comment on the cycle of destruction and renewal that this beautiful region has been subjected to since India’s independence.