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