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Arpita Shah

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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Arpita Shah, Great Grandmother’s Upala Stone (from the series "Nalini"), 2017

Arpita Shah

Great Grandmother’s Upala Stone (from the series "Nalini"), 2017
Archival pigment inkjet print on Perspex
40.6 cms diameter
16 ins diameter
Series: Nalini
271847

Provenance

Arpita Shah

Exhibitions

9 February–7 April 2019: Nalini, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow.
12 October–16 November 2019: Nalini, An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, part of Purvai.
17 January–17 March 2020: Nalini, Impressions Gallery, Bradford.
6 October 2020–11 April 2021: Towner International, Towner Eastbourne (group exhibition).
12 April–July 2024: Nalini, Duff House, Banff; Street Level Photoworks with Historic Environment Scotland. Closing date differs between sources (14 or 21 July); exact date unconfirmed.
13 June–4 October 2026: Nalini, Firstsite, Colchester.

Publications

 

Literature

Emilia Terracciano, ‘Arpita Shah: Nalini (ongoing)’, 1000 Words, no. 27, 31 January 2018 (online).

Arpita Shah, ‘Nalini’, NOTES: Letters to Photography, no. 5, Autumn/Winter 2018, p. 33.

Emilia Terracciano, ‘Arpita Shah: Nalini’, in 1000 Words: 10 Year Anniversary Print Edition, 2018, p. 156.

Emilia Terracciano, ‘Nalini: Memory of Things’, Street Level Photoworks exhibition minigraph, Glasgow, 2019, unpaginated.

Frank McElhinney, ‘Exhibition Review: Arpita Shah, Nalini, Street Level Photoworks’, Writing on Scottish Photography, 26 February 2019 (online).

John McDougall, ‘Arpita Shah: Nalini’, Photomonitor, 3 April 2019 (online).

Arpita Shah, ‘Arpita Shah’, interview, Anywhere Blvd, 13 May 2019 (online).

Arpita Shah, Nalini: Captions and Additional Words from Arpita Shah, Impressions Gallery exhibition guide, Bradford, 2020, 24 pp., unpaginated, ill. PDF p. 15.

‘Across Borders’, Harper’s Bazaar India, 11th anniversary issue, March 2020, p. 128.

Emilia Terracciano, ‘Arpita Shah’, with photographs by Arpita Shah, Contact Sheet, no. 207, Light Work Annual 2020, July 2020, pp. [4]–11 (text p. 5).

‘Arpita Shah Journeys Through the History of the Women in Her Family’, FotoRoom, [2020] (online).

Clare Samuel (curator and text), ‘She & Her & Me: Arpita Shah, Clea Christakos-Gee, Jennifer Long, Margaret Mitchell’, BlackFlash, no. 37.3, Winter 2021 (online as ‘She & Her & Me’, 8 March 2021).

Arpita Shah, with text by Frank McElhinney, ‘Nalini’, PIX, vol. 18, Passages: a Subcontinental Imaginary, February 2022, pp. 38–47, ill. pp. 42–43.

Killian Fox and Jude Rogers, ‘The Look of Love’, The Observer, The New Review, Love Photography Special, 13 February 2022, pp. 12–[13] (Arpita Shah contribution); online as ‘From the heart: 10 photographers on the theme of love’, The Guardian, 13 February 2022.

Bazaar India, ‘On migration, memory, and loss—artist Arpita Shah documents her family history’, Harper’s Bazaar India, 15 September 2022 (online).

Lodoe Laura, ‘Arpita Shah’s Nalini’, Identity • Connection • Place, Feminist Photography Network, [March 2023] (online).

Arpita Shah, ‘Arpita Shah’, portfolio from Nalini, Mulieris, no. 5, The Degrees Between Us, 2023, p. 152.

Arpita Shah, ‘Nalini’, Art Journal, vol. 84, no. 1, Spring 2025, pp. 7–21, ill. pp. 16–18 (online 12 May 2025).

Arpita Shah, ‘Nalini’, Art Journal Open, 15 May 2025 (online).

Cassandre Thomas, ‘Arpita Shah et la transmission des récits féminins’, Fisheye, 12 September 2025 (online).

Mark Rappolt, review of Arpita Shah: Nalini, ArtReview, October 2026; online as ‘How to Conceal and Reveal with Arpita Shah’, 27 October 2026.

Spanning India, East Africa and the UK, Nalini explores the connected histories of Arpita Shah, her mother and her grandmother. Bringing contemporary portraits and still lifes together with family photographs...
Read more
Spanning India, East Africa and the UK, Nalini explores the connected histories of Arpita Shah, her mother and her grandmother. Bringing contemporary portraits and still lifes together with family photographs and heirloom objects, the series traces the effects of migration, distance and loss across generations. Shah’s search through family archives and visits to places connected with her maternal ancestors led to new discoveries about their lives and relationships. The title is her grandmother’s name and the Sanskrit word for lotus. Flowers recur as offerings to the women in her family: the lotus symbolises femininity, fertility and rebirth, while bougainvillea connects memories of India and East Africa. Photographs of bodies, possessions and places bring these family histories together.


The circular photograph shows an iridescent stone against a turquoise and white background. Shah's Anywhere Blvd interview describes opal stones from Kenya among the family objects included in Nalini. She explains that such possessions have travelled across continents and generations, with their worn surfaces carrying traces of those journeys. The title places this small object within the maternal family history the series explored by the series.
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