RAKI NIKAHETIYA
RAKI NIKAHETIYA
What is a Nation?
What is it made of? How was it made? I asked myself these questions moving to the United Kingdom in 2014. For 5 years, I researched and visited over 30 sites which were a significant part of shaping the country’s history. I collected land samples of objects close these sites, creating a personal archive; from plant matter next to where the earliest human footprints (800,000 years old) were discovered, to metal rust lying next to the world’s first iron bridge. The minute samples are coated in pure gold dust, enabling the scanning electron microscope to produce an image. At the Nano level, the ultrastructure enables seeing history differently. These otherworldly landscapes are free from politics, oblivious to nations, dynasties, epochs and cultures.
This work is an experiment to rethink how we perceive our nations, our landscapes and ourselves. Zooming into a largely unseen realm, this series invites us to reflect about one’s past, present and future, what and how we define identity, heritage and ultimately what we call home.
All images where taken at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India.
With thanks to King's College London and the IIT, New Delhi.
Shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society International Exhibition 2021 and IPE163 Award.
Image: KALĀ South Asia 2024
1920 AD. A soil sample taken on the banks of the river Thames, London – the Thames was the launch point from of the British Empire fleet expanding its reign to other dominions. By 1920, Great Britain was the largest empire in World history. Within a century this context has changed entirely.
60 × 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
Site Visit - Richborough Fort. The Gateway to Roman Britain
800,000 BC. A plant matter sample at Happisburgh beach in Norfolk – where the first fossilized hominid footprints in the UK, potentially belonging to Homo Antecessor and the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa where found. Great Britain was connected to mainland Europe during that interglacial period.
60 × 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
400,000 BC. A plant matter sample taken near Swanscombe in Kent – the earliest known Neanderthal remains in the UK, a skull of a young woman. Neanderthal hunter gatherers returned to Britain on multiple occasions between between then and 50,000 years ago, even possibly during times where the isles where covered in ice and snow.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
793 AD. Invasion of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, first recorded Danish invasion – arrival of the Vikings to Britain.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
Gold-coated samples of soil and found objects at various sites prior to Electron-Microscope imaging.
5th Century AD. A decomposed wood sample taken near Mucking in Essex – over 40,000 artefacts where unearthed at this site, ranging from Neolithic, Bronze age, Iron age to a Roman cemetery. Amongst these also one of the earliest known Anglo-Saxon settlement in the UK. Unlike other sites this particular site gave an insight on daily Anglo-Saxon life on the isles.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
1215 AD. A plant matter sample taken near Runnymede, Surrey – the site believed to have been the sealing place for the Magna Carta, where King John of England agreed a pact with rebel Barons – a significant peace treaty of the period and certain aspects remain valid to date. But neither side kept their commitments after signing the treaty, leading to a civil war known as the First Baron’s War.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
Site Visit - Paviland Cave, Gower Peninsula, South Wales. The burial site of the “Red Lady of Paviland”, the first Homo Sapiens remains on the British Isles.
1485 AD. A plant matter sample taken near Bosworth Field, Warwickshire – the battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, following the Hundred Years’s War, giving rise to the house of Tudor and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
1781 AD. A metal rust sample taken near the Iron Bridge, Shropshire – often arguably titled the Birthplace of the Industrial revolution and spreading throughout the world from the UK, creating a transition and radical change from hand production of goods to mechanical and new manufacturing processes.
60 x 60 CM
Hahnemühle, FineArt Pearl (Gloss) archival paper
Edition 3+1AP
Electron-Microscopy imaging process.