Pritika Chowdhry

Visual Description: The installation consists of two types of Hindu ritual copper vessels, one a dharapatra, hanging from the ceiling and a havan, on the floor beneath it—water dripping from the higher vessel into the lower one placed in a circle. The dharapatra is shaped like a bowl but instead of a rounded bottom, it has a slight “nipple” with a small hole from which the water drips. Etched on each is the site and year of a violent anti-muslim or sikh attack: Nellie Massacre, Assam, 1983; Anti-Sikh Pogrom, Delhi, Punjab 1984; Jammu Kashmir, 1989-1991; Post-Babri Mosque Riots, Bombay, 1992-93; and the Godhara Train Riots, Anti-Muslim Pogrom, 2002. The havan is square and in it, the artist has placed burnt paper. In the middle of the circle, there is a vessel with water. 

Wall Text: In Hindu temples, a dharapatra is used to drip water or milk on deities, and a havan is used to light the holy fire and make offerings. Adapting this ritual, the installation, an anti-memorial, negates the violence targeting Muslims in India. Frequently, Muslims are killed and burnt, and their houses and shops are razed to the ground. Each havan contains partially burnt books written in Urdu, the language spoken by Muslims in India and Pakistan, and is a metaphor for the decimation of Islamic culture in these acts of arson. “This religiously motivated violence is chillingly reminiscent of the Partition riots,” explains Pritika Chowdhry. When India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947 Muslim and Hindu populations were separated and many lives were lost. Her body of work centers largely on India’s partition. The presence of water in the work animates ‘memory leaks’ bringing counter-recollections of historic and contemporary communal violence into being. Viewers are invited to participate and memorialize victims by retrieving water from the vessel on the floor and using a cup to pour water into the dharapatras.

About

Pritika Chowdhry is an artist and curator whose artworks are in public and private collections. Born and brought up in India, Pritika is currently based in Chicago, IL, USA. Pritika has an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in Visual Culture and Gender Studies from UW-Madison and has taught at Macalester College and College of Visual Arts, both in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Chowdhry has exhibited her works nationally and internationally including her mid-career solo retrospective at the South Asia Institute in 2022 and in group and solo exhibitions at the Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, Queens Museum in New York, the Hunterdon Museum in New Jersey, the Islip Art Museum in Long Island, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, the DoVA Temporary in the University of Chicago, and the Brodsky Center in Rutgers University. Chowdhry is the recipient of a Vilas International Travel Fellowship, an Edith and Sinaiko Frank Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, a Wisconsin Arts Board grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant.