Hetain Patel, Love and Marriage (2012)© Courtesy Hetain Patel
In 2011, when the Bollywood Baraat project in Southampton told the story of a young couple’s spectacular wedding day, Hetain Patel was Art Asia’s artist-in-residence.
So the John Hansard Gallery’s idea to let him explore the themes of love and marriage, channelled through chats with members of the domestic British Indian community and his own family, is another exuberant set of stories, using immersive language and fragments of conversations in texts which flow around the space, sometimes revealing themselves on unfurling paper.
This is the first text-based sculptural installation for Patel – he has won awards for his video and performance pieces, and will appear as part of The Tanks at Tate Modern – but it also uses photography and film as the second generation British Asian attempts to define parts of his own and a wider identity.
- John Hansard Gallery Central, Civic Centre Road, Southampton. Open Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm. Admission free.
