The Unseen Protagonist (2025–26)

I was born in an interior village called Nabagram and later moved to Kolkata. This journey shapes my understanding of how the human body, labour and memory adapt to the pressures of urban life. I see the human body not only as an individual form, but as a container of rural knowledge, physical labour and lived memories. This project focuses on the tension between visibility and invisibility within the migrant experience. The life-sized sculpture, made using Purulia's traditional Chhou mask-making technique, becomes both a self-portrait and a social document. Taken through public spaces across Kolkata, then for a short period in Kochi, the object questions society's gaze and the fragile presence of migrant bodies, who remain the unseen protagonists of the cityscape.

The central figure layers clay, paper and natural adhesives — a process that carries the skill and labour of rural artisans while remaining eco-friendly and portable. Hollow yet resilient, the sculpture bears cracks, stains and earthen textures that reflect the fragility and endurance of the migrant body. Its base, made of earth and brick, resembles a temporary shrine or shelter, while a soundscape emerging from within suggests the body speaking through memory.

Shown at Students' Biennale 2025–26, BMS Warehouse, Fort Kochi, as part of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.