For Rahat, titling is its own creative process. Drawing from personal notes, conversations, memes, and pop culture, she treats language as another medium. “It gives me a chance to be a bit cheeky,” she admits. A title like ‘Diva Coded’ references contemporary internet culture, while others draw directly from her own writing and memory—like ‘I Just Woke Up’, where she paints a girl scrolling through her phone in bed, a moment deeply familiar to many.
“Memory is always changing; it’s never the same. So her memory of home, her people, is constantly evolving,” says Arjun Butani, a gallerist. Bringing Rahat’s work to Delhi, he says, will resonate with the city’s audience owing to a shared Asian heritage. “India, especially cities like Delhi, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Srinagar, and even Lucknow, embodies a shared north Indian cultural rhythm. You still see people in salwar kameez, sitting in courtyards, eating, reminiscing. It’s a mix of Punjabi and Nawabi sensibilities, where younger generations move abroad, but the culture remains intact. Delhi, in many ways, epitomises that.”
On view at Pristine Contemporary, Bhishma Pitamah Marg, South Extension I, until May 12