Vikrant Bhise’s current practice is an inquiry into the lives of various migrant and marginalised communities who have been discarded by society, yet continue to struggle for identity and acceptance. This body of work extends his previous series, which focused on snake charmers and monkey charmers, etc—street performers who move from village to village, living without a permanent homeland.

These migrant communities set up temporary tents using whatever materials they were able to accumulate; these tents become their abodes and the only spaces they can call their ‘own’. Tents, in particular, carry layered political meanings. They can function as theatres for itinerant performers who wander from place to place, speaking to the lives of such communities, and they can also serve as shelters for worn-out bodies during moments of protest.

These works reflect Bhise’s own mindscape, where land, tents, cloth, people, and other objects churn together in a constant state of turmoil—much like the lives of these communities themselves. The Buddha, as the ultimate form of peace and liberation, anchors this practice. Drawing from Buddhism, Bhise derives his visual vocabulary through its iconography and architecture. The Chattra spire—the crowning element of a stupa—emerges as a symbol of peace and protection, offering a form of hope for these people. The presence of Babasaheb Ambedkar serves as a reminder of his enduring call—“Educate. Agitate. Organise.”—which remains a crucial tool in the struggle against injustice and oppression.

This body of work is also inspired by Bhise’s rereading of Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki, a text that addresses caste-based discrimination and the lived realities of the Valmiki community, historically engaged in sanitation and manual labour. The area where Bhise grew up, in Vikhroli, included a neighbourhood known as Valmiki Nagar, or ‘bhangiwada’ in popular slang. While tall towers stand there today, in Bhise’s memory it persists as a caste ghetto, marked by tents.