Image: Firstsite, Colchester
Its listed run is from Saturday 13 June to Sunday 4 October 2026. The exhibition is a Street Level Photoworks touring exhibition supported by Creative Scotland and Hope Scott Trust.
‘Nalini’ is a photographic series developed across India, East Africa and the UK that explores the connected histories of Arpita Shah, her mother and her grandmother. The exhibition explores motherhood, heritage, belonging and the connections that exist across generations and continents.
Shah performs floral offerings to the women in her family, while some images feature symbolically significant flowers adorning old photographs from family albums. In one image, a passport photograph of Shah’s great-grandmother is decorated with bougainvillea, a plant introduced to India and East Africa during the British Empire.
The title ‘Nalini’ means ‘lotus’ in Sanskrit; floral motifs are a recurrent feature in Shah’s work, and the lotus symbolises purity, femininity and fertility in Hindu culture.
Shah is a photographic artist based in Eastbourne, UK, who works between photography and film, exploring the fields where culture and identity meet.
