Reciprocity Project

Reciprocity Project develops during time spent at the Kriti Artist Residency in Varanasi, India—one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, where ritual, daily life, and death exist in constant proximity. The city unfolds through sound and movement: bells, chants, traffic, footsteps, smoke. Walking is unavoidable, and walking becomes a form of attention.

Each day, I move through the city on foot, making repeated visits to temples scattered across neighborhoods and alleyways. At each temple, I make an offering, following local custom. In return, I receive prasad—flowers, incense, fruit, and kum kum powder—given by the temple.

Each offering is placed into its own glass jar, one jar for each temple visit, filled with water collected from the Ganges River. The jars are left undisturbed for weeks. Over time, the contents slowly change. Petals darken, fruit softens, incense dissolves. The water clouds, ferments, and thickens. What begin as discrete objects gradually merge and transform.

When the process reaches a point of saturation, the liquid and remaining matter are poured onto sheets of paper and allowed to settle, spread, and form their own shapes. Gravity, time, and chemistry determine the composition.

Months later, back in my studio, I hand-sew small pieces of silk onto each sheet as a gesture of protection—an act of care rather than repair. The works hold traces of exchange—offering and return, devotion and response—without representation. They remain quiet records of a process shaped by walking, place, time, and transformation.

View the works list