Skewed Histories (2023), are a series of sculptures that reference nostalgic familiarities specific to Delhi. The installation draws from distinct architectural styles: Khalji architecture, represented by the Alai Darwaza from the Qutub Minar complex (1311 AD), the first true dome in India that later inspired Mughal architecture; 20th-century homes in Shahjahanabad (the walled city built by Shah Jahan in the mid-1600s, now known as Old Delhi), featuring a door adorned with Gothic and Jain templar carvings from a private home that reflects the colonial Indo-Saracenic aspired style, combinations of Indian and European elements; and Sikh architecture, referencing the 19th-century Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, which, like many Sikh temples, incorporates the Shahjahani arch—a style prevalent across Old Delhi and deeply tied to my cultural heritage.

Against a backdrop of governmental efforts to erase Mughal heritage, rename roads, and alter history books under a right-wing action toward de-colonisation, eleven of these arches come together in the work to form an immersive installation, where they transcend their functionality to point toward the mutability of history. Of portals upturned, it contemplates history’s ability to manipulate, intersect, submerge, lay, and flatten narratives through the metaphor of a doorway from public and private architectures that have related to the influence of Islamic architecture in Delhi through subtle, often hidden, throughlines. The works contain the erasure of the ornament and the ability of form to carry stories. Skewed Histories prompts reflection on how current ideologies shape our understanding of the past, asking whether built structures can preserve histories that official records have sought to erase—and whether these stories will remain accessible for future generations through the scale of a monumnental turn.