Kotari is the traditional kitchen knife used in Assam, India, an object deeply embedded in domestic life and cultural practice. This work explores my relationship with the kotari, a household tool that has long been fundamental to the rhythms of home. By weaving with wool, cotton, and the kotari itself, I engage with its dual role as both a functional object and a marker of memory and belonging.
At the heart of the work lies a set of questions: How does one rekindle a relationship with objects that are fundamental to their roots and culture? What does it mean to re-learn where we come from? These questions shape the way I approach not only the making of the work, but also its afterlife in images. In some photographs, the kotari, the very object at the foundation of the piece, is intentionally absent. This absence mirrors the way certain practices and tools, once central to my life in Assam, have gradually receded as I move across places and experiences. The missing knife becomes a quiet marker of distance, reflecting on how cultural continuity fades when displaced from its origins.
Through presence and absence, material and memory, the work considers the fragile ties between everyday objects, identity, and the places we call home.