PROJECT 'DIARY OF TRANSCIENCE'; 2018

Perhaps no other British creation symbolizes the standard of excellence as well as the Rolls Royce car. From Royals to Rap stars, the Rolls Royce car holds its own as the ultimate symbol of success.

Heralded as the car of the Maharajas and the preferred transportation of Chinese and Indonesian billionaires, British - Indian Pop Artist Ketna Patel has transformed a classic 1975 Rolls Royce 'Silver shadow' into a mobile Art installation.

Commencing in summer 2018, she intends to travel around 'immigrant Britain', documenting and archiving stories of the many layered generations of immigrants in Britain. Her objective is to explore, facilitate and reflect a deeper awareness of the many layers of narrative within the immigrant communities living in the U.K, both to themselves and the rest of the world.

BRITINDIA CULTURAL ENVOY Ketna Patel

UK-INDIA YOUTH LEADER AWARD 2018

PROJECT BRITINDIA: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ke...

Affectionately we refer to Britain as 'Blighty'.... but how many people know that the name 'Blighty' derives from "bilayati"; a regional variant of the hindi word "vilayati", meaning "foreign" or "British"!

Ketna Patel hails from an indian ethnicity, but was born with a British nationality in one of Britain's colonies; Kenya. She has spent most of the last 25 years in Singapore and India; both British colonies. "Coming from this layered background, I am aware of how conditioned we have been by the ‘British’ version of world events, and how this colonial education (for better or worse) may have locked us out of our own original thought and identity making. I am not talking about religious rituals or the stageset and props behind National Day Parades and Diwali festivals.…..I am referring to the ‘new 21st century, largely urban Asian’. Who is he or she?? And what is this modern Asian with the new, powerful voice saying and feeling? What do they look like?"

During my travels in India, I stumble across quiet displays of ingenious creativity. However, I suspect that there is a shortage of platforms in which these ‘creative’ two way conversations can be had with the public. At the risk of generalization, I would say that Indian Design has become entangled with foreign brands and status, often substituting its own story telling with projections borne from foreign cultures and sensibilities. For a young girl to spend her whole month’s salary on a branded handbag makes no sense. Overt minimalism for a country bursting with colour and texture seems strange, yet we are all tuning into many homogenous presentations and reproductions of copies of copies from somewhere else. We are witnessing the demise of the individual. Any demonstration of the opposite of that is something I would dearly welcome, even if the end product is not finished or slick.

Combining her life experiences, observations, and social networks, Ketna would like to build cultural and social bridges of understanding between Britain and India. In particular, her focus is to shine the light on invisible or marginalised communities that have been left out of the universal neo-liberal economic political model which has had severe ramifications on individual and national identities.