The thing about war is that its effects are felt long after the guns go silent. The trauma of violence passed on through generations forms the subject of the practices of many contemporary Indian artists, who may not have witnessed war first-hand or were too young to process the severity of the losses.
In her There was a Home series, Prajakta Potnis superimposes found pieces of wall with peeled wall colour, alluding to the debris of houses in the aftermath of war. This series, which she began in 2024, serves today as a grim reminder of the homes lost in Kashmir in the recent India-Pakistan clashes.
The prolonged effects of war are also captured with nuance by artist Baptist Coelho in his series Bandages-Bullets. He uses the seemingly contrasting objects — both symbols of war — to make a comment on perception. “In 2015, during my exhibition in Leh, a little girl, upon seeing gauze bandages in an artwork, remarked that they looked like cartridges,” the artist recalls. “Her words revealed how trauma and conflict shape perception, turning symbols of healing into markers of destruction.”
