FIVE MINUTES WITH…
Welcome back to our ‘Five Minutes with…’ series! This series is where we take a journey around the Island and speak to important members of our community to find out what attracted them to Sugar House Island, what they love about Stratford and their favourite things to do in the area.
Today we’ll be speaking to Rajesh Bhovan, a British-Indian artist who forms part of DominAsian, an artist collective displaying their work at the Island as part of our year-long partnership with Hypha Studios to provide free art space to local creatives.
Please can you introduce yourself and DominAsian?
DominAsian is a magazine founded in Newham, which aims to support South Asian creatives of all ages and across all practices, such as painting, photography, writing and sculpture. It is a biannual publication, and we’ll be publishing its fourth volume. Here are links to the website and the Instagram.
What are the themes of your exhibition at Sugar House Island?
We wanted to encapsulate the feeling of home, so rather than artists displaying individual artwork, we wanted to curate a collective atmosphere, to allow the artwork to exist in a larger space and enhance the existing environment, just like pieces of art would exist in a home.
We wanted to incorporate the aspect of time travel and create a home reminiscent of our parents’ and grandparents’ in the ‘70s and ’80s. The older generation of South Asians are creatively wired but they don’t see themselves that way, so the exhibition aims to question what it means to be creative.
The exhibition is all about what it means to be South Asian. Some of the themes of the artwork are about spirituality, Hindi film references, genre-based collective and cultural pieces, personal works like multi-generational family photography and painting of ancestors and relatives.
What has your experience been of growing up in Newham?
Newham is so multicultural and filled with community spirit. You will find strips like Green Street which have a majority South Asian population, reflected in the businesses on the street like garment shops, bakeries, sweet shops, restaurants. These are all established family-run businesses which have existed for 50+ years, so the area has been a very formative part of my upbringing and my relationship with my own cultural identity.
What are your top tips and best places to visit for first-time visitors to Newham?
My main recommendation is to take a walk along Green Street and see these hubs of independent and interesting businesses for yourself.
Who or what has been the main inspiration for you as an artist?
It has been my parents and grandparents and I’ve developed my work to be able to let them relive their core memories. As our parents’ and grandparents’ generation grows older, if their memories and experiences are not archived, it feels like their lives are lost. Moreover, many South Asians don’t talk about trauma and by including their stories in artwork, it cements and highlights their experiences and allows them to heal. Head down to Gallery 1 at Chimney Walk to explore the exhibition for yourself until 14th September and follow @hyphastudios for more information about the schedule of events.