100-E Archives
A trip down memory lane..
100-E Archives (2020)
Mix Media on Cork Board
3ft by 2ft
Two years ago, I relocated abroad, leaving behind my childhood home in 2016—a place that housed 24 individuals, including my parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents, for 17 significant years. During that era, the "Joint-family" system was not only common but deeply ingrained in the culture. While sharing our growth and lives together, the home became a repository of collective memories and experiences.
Eventually, we decided to move to a new home, selling the one filled with shared histories. The buyers demolished the structure, erasing any tangible remnants. I never had the opportunity to revisit it.
Amidst the pandemic, my return to Pakistan prompted an attempt to reconstruct the now non-existent home—a place that resides not only in my imagination but also in the memories of the 23 others who once lived there. The objective was to create an archival piece, retracing the origins of house No. 100-E, connecting memory by memory to an era when it first stood.
Closeup Images:
Preparation/Process Images:
The process proved to be rather odd for me. Despite the deeply personal nature of this artwork, I found myself in the role of an investigator probing into someone else's life, another person's home. It felt as if I were an outsider, peering in, attempting to salvage any fragments of evidence that existed before its demolition. Conversations with family, cousins, and friends became crucial, seeking anyone who might remember the now-vanished home.
Armed with an old family film camera, a relic from years past, I documented the current state of the house, later developing the captured images. Official plot documents and agreements dating back to 1989 were meticulously gathered. Going through stacks of photo albums, I sifted through memories, attempting to reconstruct the intricate details of the home—the staircase, the main lounge, the formal dining area, the kitchen, the rooms, and more. Each step felt like an archaeological dig, unearthing remnants of a past that once held life and meaning.
These are a combination of before and after images of the exterior of the house.
I found numerous photographs, old decorations, paintings, a curtain sample from my mom's bedroom from 20 years ago, our first family business card, old currency, a Bindi my grandfather gave me when I was a child, and more. I digitally recreated my parents' bedroom tile using Illustrator and tea-stained and burned pieces of paper to achieve an old script aesthetic. I made use of red string to connect each memory with a similar one and linking one aspect of the piece to another.
By utilizing fragments of information, documents, images, and my memories, I created an investigation board. However, I view this project not as an ending but rather as a point of embarkation. It stands as a work in progress, an early exploration rather than a finished body of work.
Theses are a combination of old decorations, paintings, tile designs and tea-stained paper.