Raki Nikahetiya’s artworks exploring migration and memories, from Sri Lanka to Austria, on view at Hyderabad’s Kalakriti art gallery

Raki Nikahetiya’s artworks are multidisciplinary, combining painting, embroidery and applique on textiles — and some of them are hung from the ceiling of Kalakriti Art Gallery. This is the Austrian-Sri Lankan artist’s first exhibition in Hyderabad. Viewing the artworks, I thought about the practical ease with which the textile artworks can be transported. I was not off the mark. During the walkthrough preview, the artist points at a large suitcase and says, “All the artworks would fit in here.”

The choice of material — primarily textile and occasionally small marble inlay works — is dictated by the theme of migration and his mother’s love for textile techniques such as applique. The exhibition titled The Migrant Memory dwells on migration, integration, memory and cultural belonging. 

The artworks are inspired by Raki’s childhood memories of growing up in Kandy, Sri Lanka, from where his family moved to Austria, as the civil war intensified in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “When you are young and your sense of identity is not fully formed, you do not have a definite narrative of who you are and where you belong. When you move to a new place, you try to piece together the puzzle,” says Raki. 

Discussing migration in the context of both animals and the human race, he muses, “Migration has been natural for birds, animals and even humankind before we became an agrarian society. I consider migration as both personal and universal.”

Born in Sri Lanka in 1983, his childhood memories are of his father working at a university in Kandy. “I was about five years old when the civil war grew intense and many lost their lives, including my father’s colleagues. Although my father was not politically engaged, he had to choose to move. My grandmother had friends in Austria, so it seemed like a natural choice.” 

Raki remembers his family moving out of Sri Lanka thinking it would be for two months, but it extended to 25 years. Raki recently decided to return to Sri Lanka.

His recent series of artworks draws from his memories of Sri Lanka. “When we left, our belongings were in two suitcases; it felt as though we had everything we needed. It gave us the flexibility to move and a sense of freedom.” 

The imagery in the textile artwork panels is Raki’s interpretation of objects recalled from memory and family photographs. A variation of a Paradise flycatcher bird on one panel is a throwback to when he, then a five-year-old, accompanied by his mother, walked into an alley and spotted the birds that were notorious for flying away with clothes. “When my mother saw this artwork, she recalled the two of us watching the birds, though we had not discussed it for years.”

Another artwork places a family of four — his grandparents, father and brother — as though nestled within a large jackfruit. Raki recalls his grandparents managing jackfruit orchards before migrating to Austria. In several artworks, the imagery of people is outlined without details of facial features. The personal portraits at once become universal as though representative of migration and displacement across the world.

While some artworks have taken six months to make, others took a few years. “You cannot rush through art,” says Raki. The idea of using textiles as a canvas came about when he saw his mother treasure a piece of applique and an embroidered piece of textile. On velvety textile surfaces, he painted and collaborated with Kolkata-based Syed Reyasuddin Ali who brought his ideas to life with fine Kutch ‘ari’ embroidery that resembles a painting when viewed from a distance. “Artists normally do not credit their collaborators for fear of competition, but I felt the need to do so. Reyas Ali is a master craftsman,” says Raki.

In some artworks, the embroidery and applique are not confined within the frame of the textile and occasionally project from the boundaries. There are also minute variations due to the innate imperfections of handcrafted work; the artist likens it to the imperfection of memory, which alters with time.

The subtext goes beyond merely depicting childhood memories. Raki comments on the duality of how men and women are perceived. While his grandfather, with his flamboyant demeanour, was perceived to be a man of strength, his grandmother was the more resilient of the two. “She seemed subtle but was the stronger one. I wanted to portray the complexities of people and it turned out that my heroes are mostly women.” Raki remembers his British-educated grandmother as a person of strength and fortitude in times of crisis.

Creating artworks from childhood memories helped Raki value his home country as well as forge a deeper connection with the new identity post-migration. In Vienna, he studied economics and worked as a photojournalist. Raki then joined the United Nations in 2009 and worked in areas of international development for five years. Since then, he has worked and lived in London, New Delhi and Colombo. 

A large artwork on one wall is Raki’s interpretation of the notion of safety when he first sat on an aeroplane, moving out of Sri Lanka, peering into the safety instructions card. Several images of aeroplane wings come into view in the semi-abstract work. “The air safety cards work as a unifying visual language for any of us who fly on an aeroplane, irrespective of where we hail from.”

Raki’s larger artwork named Twenty Twenty-Two serves as a visual memory of the significant global events of 2022. Using meme-like images, he depicts various events such as the Ukraine-Russia war, Joe Biden’s stand, the conflict between the Right and Left wings, and the infamous Oscar slap involving Will Smith and Chris Rock, among others. “I plan to do one artwork each year as a visual memory of important events.”

Presented by Kalakriti in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum, the exhibition will be inaugurated by HE Katharina Wieser, Austrian Ambassador to India, on November 30 evening.

The Migrant Memory will be on view at Kalakriti art gallery till January 5, 2025.