Home Ideas

What is the definition of home? Is it the people who reside in it or the people we interact with on a daily basis through this space that constitutes a home? For photographer Vicky Roy, who grew up in a shelter home run by Delhi-based NGO Salaam Baalak Trust, it is the everyday rituals such as eating, playing and bathing that characterise a home. His photographs are a part of an exhibition, "Apna Ghar", which opens today. Three other artists from Delhi and Mumbai have tried to question the concept of home.

Roy, 24, says, "For most people, a home is where family members stay. For me, it was a place where my friends stayed. Instead of parents, we had teachers. Also, while in most households, mothers cook the food, we had food that came from a dhaba." His black-and-white photographs capture moments where young boys, seated on the ground in rows, are eating in a room, taking a bath together and playing cricket. Co-curator of the show, Vidya Shivadas says, "The artists are also subjects in their own projects. Working with a range of media such as photographs, artist books,documentaries and performance, they have engaged with the concept of home."

The idea of the four walls, according to Mumbai-based film-maker, Nishtha Jain has been revealed through her documentary Lakshmi And Me, which tells the story of her maid. While it looks at the concept of a home from inside, another documentary by her titled At My Doorstep, that will be screened on October 11, looks at home from the outside. The latter acknowledges how a watchman, delivery boy and garbage collector, are a part of several middle class households.

Apna Ghar is on till November 1 at Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony

ALSO READ

Binge Buying

Quick and Easy

Second Innings

Harmony of Life