Dhiraj Rabha is an emerging artist from Borali Gaon, Assam, whose work deeply explores personal identity and communal memory. Growing up in a former ULFA detention camp, he draws on his experiences to address themes of loss and violence. Rabha holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, culminating in a Master of Fine Arts from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University. His accolades include the Prince Claus Seed Award (2023-24) and participation in the Khoj Peers Residency (2024). Rabha has exhibited at the Serendipity Arts Festival and received a Production Grant from the India Foundation for the Arts in 2022. His practice involves site-specific installations and research-based projects, reflecting a commitment to bringing social narratives into public consciousness through thorough community-engagement. He continues to illuminate the intricate connections between identity, context, and memory.
Dhiraj Rabha draws from the evocative memories of a Rabha tribal kitchen, where the bamboo structure known as the ongari preserves items above the fire in layers of smoke. This installation transforms the ongari into a powerful metaphor with its burning embers and smoke symbolising both the warmth of preservation and the haze of obscured histories. It echoes the artist’s childhood spent listening to tales from his mother, juxtaposed against a darker backdrop of violence and displacement in Assam. Yet, this is not a nostalgic work. It resists sentimentality by grounding its metaphors in the physicality of materials—bamboo, wood, tracing paper—merged with the precision of technology. The viewer is not merely a spectator but a participant, moving through layers of sound, image, and memory.
