The memory collector
VOGUE India|July - August 2024
Blending performative photography, paper weaving and archival material, Arpita Akhanda's art interrogates what we choose to remember and forget.
ARMAN KHAN
The memory collector

A WOMAN IN white, covered in barbed wire, sits cross-legged on the floor. She is not still. The wire is tangled in her hair. Then she does something strange: with her bare hands, in a room full of spectators too stunned to record the scene with their phones, she slowly unspools the barbed wire. It cuts into her fingers, a nick here, a gash there. Cuts sprout across her palms. Children in the audience ask their parents why she does not protect her hair or wear gloves. No one knows.

Arpita Akhanda performed her work 360 Minutes of Requiem for six hours over two days at the India Art Fair in 2022. “The physical pain was one thing, but during the performance, it was difficult to think of people—past and present—divided by borders and the way they are still making journeys over barbed wire. So I invited people to sit next to me and psychologically untie these barriers,” she says.

During the performance, many in the audience wrote short notes to her, some of them promising that they would never be a part of things that divide. “I lost my thumbprint for a month because the pressure on the thumb to untie barbed wire is a lot. In losing it, I briefly lost my identity too,” she recounts.

Born in Cuttack in Odisha and now based in Santiniketan in West Bengal, the 31-year-old artist prefers being known as a memory collector. Akhanda’s work is not limited to a singular medium. She believes that stories will save us and that preserving what used to be is the only way to make sense of the chaotic present.

The preservation journey began on a personal note—she was rummaging through her grandfather’s tattered diary pages to locate their ancestral village of Shreekail in present-day Bangladesh. The impetus to discover it came much earlier: in school, when her classmates asked where her family was from, she never had an answer.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من VOGUE India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من VOGUE India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من VOGUE INDIA مشاهدة الكل
A
VOGUE India

A

Anupama Parameswaran knows the cost of being seen, of being a young woman in a world that's always watching. Beyond the beauty, the glamour and her young 28 years, she speaks five languages more than enough words to tell her story. The actor opens up to AKSHAYA PILLAI on the quiet details of a loud life.

time-read
7 mins  |
January - February 2025
ALL POWERED UP
VOGUE India

ALL POWERED UP

For a long time, South Asians limited themselves to careers in tech and finance in order to make a mark away from Indian soil. Now, they are not only taking over the creative scene but also finding new ways to proudly display the identity they once felt compelled to conceal

time-read
10 mins  |
January - February 2025
THE PROMISED LAND
VOGUE India

THE PROMISED LAND

Generations of rural women have been refused a well-deserved seat at the decision-making table. Now, through upskilling and technological know-how, their daughters are taking their place at its head.

time-read
5 mins  |
January - February 2025
HOT!
VOGUE India

HOT!

A penchant for spice is no longer just a personal preference; it's a badge of honour, the mark of a wild, sexy, untameable spirit. It's why any Indian establishment worth its salt now takes pride in its proprietary condiments-big, bold, blazing ones that could only come from its kitchen.

time-read
4 mins  |
January - February 2025
DOWN TO EARTH
VOGUE India

DOWN TO EARTH

While grand gestures might make for good cinema, Bhumi Pednekar's real life is about making small, deliberate everyday choices for the planet

time-read
4 mins  |
January - February 2025
Ms. Brightside
VOGUE India

Ms. Brightside

A loved one's dementia diagnosis can feel like the person you know is lost forever. When the progressive disease came to claim their amma, two sisters found a silver lining in her changing behaviour.

time-read
5 mins  |
January - February 2025
A gift in time
VOGUE India

A gift in time

Why do we assign some personal milestones more value than others? Perennial bridesmaid DIVYA BALAKRISHNAN demands that we reassess the definition of a 'big day'

time-read
4 mins  |
January - February 2025
MOUNTAIN SPIRIT
VOGUE India

MOUNTAIN SPIRIT

A growing cohort of Kashmiri creatives are forging new relationships with the valley by reviving lost art forms, making art out of their bodies and applying ingenious solutions to everyday items.

time-read
6 mins  |
January - February 2025
Didn't do it for the 'gram
VOGUE India

Didn't do it for the 'gram

Am I marrying for love or for social media? When she found herself spiralling before the big day, SHRADHA SHAHANI had to ask herself the hard question

time-read
4 mins  |
January - February 2025
LA DOLCE VITA
VOGUE India

LA DOLCE VITA

From a Sicily-inspired haldi to walking down the aisle twice for the Muslim and Sikh ceremonies, Malia Taqbeem and Abhay Dhaliwal's Italian wedding was the perfect missing piece to complete their serendipitous love story

time-read
3 mins  |
January - February 2025