Museum of the Home
136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am–5pm (last entry 4pm)
Welcome to Nutkhut’s British Indian Front Room, created and curated by Ajay Chhabra and Simmy Gupta.
This is a glimpse into the home of a British Hindu family from 1987.
The family are tailors who specialise in shalwar kameez and sari blouses and celebrate and make Christmas as wholeheartedly as Diwali!
This is a lived-in space, and Nutkhut’s mission has been to bring the private into the public. It’s a workshop, family room, and dining room all wrapped into one – recreated from memory; it’s a space that struggles to be tidy. We hope people will recognise the order in the chaos.
The Indian Diaspora has a global footprint, from soldiers to refugees, tech entrepreneurs to students, and sugar cane farmers to factory workers. This movement has manifested in our own personal family lives – our homes embraced these changes and often became a temporary stop-off point for many.
Inspired by childhood memories and the lived experiences of Nutkhut’s artistic directors, Simmy Gupta and Ajay Chhabra, the room reflects and captures the spirit of a diaspora family with a global Indian footprint, from India to Fiji to Malaysia and to the UK.
All items donated or loaned by Nutkhut’s friends, family and broader audiences:
Bhasker Patel
Geeta Chhabra
Shuja Shams
Sushma Kumari
Late Suraj Kali
Rehan Sheikh
Tutvinder Singh Maan
Suneeda Maruthiyil