Migration is as ancient as humanity itself—a pursuit embedded in our cultural DNA. Contrary to dramatic portrayals, most migration occurs quietly and safely, often close to home, as individuals seek employment, education, or better opportunities for their families. It's a deliberate step toward hope, not the chaos it's often depicted as.
In his debut solo exhibition, Migrant Memory, at Kalakriti Art Gallery in Hyderabad, Austrian-Sri Lankan artist Raki Nikahetiya explores the dissonance and resilience that migration fosters. Presented in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum, the exhibition unfolds a deeply personal narrative of displacement, integration, and the fragmented pieces of identity one gathers along the way.
Nikahetiya's interdisciplinary works—a fusion of textile, embroidery, and marble inlay—are visually striking. His art evokes memories and the indescribable ache of belonging to two worlds yet feeling adrift in both. He poses the poignant question: "What would you take with you if you needed to leave your country this very moment?"
His family's escape from Sri Lanka during the civil war of the late 20th century profoundly influences Nikahetiya's art. Among his most evocative pieces is the Brace! Brace! series, where the image of an airplane safety card becomes a haunting metaphor for migration. "I remember the feeling of sitting on the plane, staring at the safety card," he recalls. "It was unnerving and comforting—a bridge between the life I knew and the unknown that awaited."
In his series Another Life, everyday objects become vessels of recollection, connecting the past to the present with subtlety. Collaborating with artisan Reyas Ali in Kolkata, Nikahetiya reimagines ancestral photographs and souvenirs as intricate pieces of embroidery and pietra dura. These works narrate his story while eliciting universal themes of resilience, longing, and the paradoxical solace found in the unfamiliar.
Reflecting on his process, Nikahetiya says, "I have archived old family photographs—memories from before migrating to Europe. For each person I painted, I tried to remember the stories I associated deeply with them. Each symbolized a time, a place, an emotion. They might be biased, naïve, or distorted, but they shaped my trajectory."
Nikahetiya challenges us to perceive migration not merely as a physical act but as an alchemical transformation. Displacement fractures identity but also reforges it in unexpected ways. His works shimmer with this tension: the pull of homeland versus the push of a new future, the weight of inherited stories versus the exhilaration of composing new ones. As he shares, "It felt like all we needed—it is the universal human desire for belonging, the strength it takes to let go, and the courage to carry fragments of one's past into the unknown. I think my art reminds me that, like migration itself, memory is both anchor and sail."
The exhibition opened with a reading by The Little Theatre Hyderabad, highlighting themes of migration and memory. H.E. Katharina Wieser, the Austrian Ambassador to India, inaugurated the event.
Migrant Memory is on display until January 5, 2025, at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Banjara Hills.
