Modern Muse: Arpita Shah
Shyama Laxman reflects on South Asian identity in relation to Arpita Shah's ongoing portraiture series, Modern Muse....
Arpita Shah (b. 1983, Ahmedabad, India) is a photographic artist based between Edinburgh and Eastbourne, UK. She works between photography and film, exploring the intersections of culture and identity. Shah spent an earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East before settling in the UK. This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities. Shah’s work tends to draw from Asian and Eastern mythology, using it both visually and conceptually to explore issues of cultural displacement in the Asian diaspora.
Shah graduated from Napier University in Edinburgh in 2006. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Detroit Center of Contemporary Photography (2013); Tramway in Glasgow (2014); Focus Festival in Mumbai, India (2015); Chobi Mela IX in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2017); Autograph APB in London (2018) Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow (2019) and Impressions Gallery in Bradford (2020). She is the recipient of the 2019 Light Work + Autograph ABP Artist-in- Residence programme in Syracuse NY and her work is held at the National Galleries of Scotland.
