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From a camp in Goalpara to Kochi Biennale: Dhiraj Rabha’s journey through art

At the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale, artist Dhiraj Rabha draws on his childhood in an ex-ULFA detention camp

3 min readUpdated: Dec 16, 2025 02:50 PM IST

Dhiraj Rabha with his installation at Coir Godown in Aspinwall House at the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

It might be the illuminated flowers in bright colours that first draw the viewers to Dhiraj Rabha’s installation at Coir Godown in Aspinwall House at the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale. But a closer look reveals their darker significance. The blown-up pitcher plants, which lure and consume insects, not only indicate that things are rarely as they appear, but also have embedded within them mics that relay muted sounds of news reports related to the separatist organisation United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and life in the region. Complementing this, videos of interviews with residents of ex-ULFA detention camps play inside towering wooden boxes that stand tall in the maze of flowers. These structures themselves echo the watchtowers that surrounded Rabha during his childhood in one such camp in Goalpara (Assam), where his family lived after his father, an ex-ULFA member, surrendered. Rabha was only five at the time. “Several families were living together and there were certain restrictions with regard to outside movement. But back then, I didn’t understand much… Now, of course, things are better and there is more freedom,” says Rabha, 30.

The first time the artist really went far from home was when, after pursuing political science, he travelled to Visva Bharati in Santiniketan to study art. “It was as if I was suddenly introduced to this new world and the experience changed my perspective in so many different ways,” he recalls.

Though he specialised in painting and dabbled with several different mediums and subjects, much of his practice has been about exploring and sharing stories from Assam and inside the camps. He was still completing his post-graduation when he presented a site-specific immersive installation that held stories from home in the form of drawings and rebel poems that were never published. A participant at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa in 2023 and Prince Claus Seed Awardee (2023-24), at the Bengal Biennale in 2024, he drew from the evocative memories of a Rabha tribal kitchen and several photographs of his mother alongside. “I often thought why was she subjected to such a life, she deserved freedom and wasn’t the one who had been part of the movement,” states Rabha.

At Kochi, several of his ongoing engagements come together in The Quiet Weight of Shadows (2025), which reflects on the power dynamics between state and community and the dissonance between lived experiences and official accounts. While the flowers form one part, in an adjoining space, Rabha recreates a burnt house that also includes memories of the past in the form of photographs collected from across Assam, including those of protests, training camps and the families of former ULFA members. “Many of these photographs are often burnt to destroy evidence,” adds the artist.

Inside a dark room, meanwhile, is the film Whispers Beneath the Ashes that appears more dreamlike — an allegorical tale of a group of children journeying through a forest, encountering mysterious figures, searching for a home. “Home becomes a metaphor and the ambition to find one becomes the journey,” he says.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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