Neither Here Nor Elsewhere: the Aesthetics of Erasure in Ranbir Kaleka's Not from Here

Author(s)	Dr. Sonu Pareek
Country	India
Abstract	This paper explores the "Aesthetics of Erasure" within the contemporary video painting Not from Here by Indian artist Ranbir Kaleka. Centered on the socio-political context of India’s internal migration crisis—affecting an estimated 100 million workers—the study investigates how Kaleka’s unique hybrid medium of projected light on painted canvas functions as a formal metaphor for human invisibility. Drawing on the art theories of Ranjit Hoskote and Geeta Kapur, alongside Marc Augé’s anthropological framework of "non-places," the research deconstructs the migrant body’s ontological status as a "translucent citizen." The analysis reveals that through the use of digital loops, shimmering luminosity, and the iconographic weighting of burdens over the human subjects, Kaleka simulates the precariousness and "stagnant temporality" of the subaltern experience. The study concludes that Not from Here serves as a critical moral witness, capturing the "neither here nor elsewhere" reality of displacement. By rendering the laborer as a spectral presence that flickers between the tactile and the ephemeral, Kaleka highlights the systemic erasure of the very workforce that constructs the modern Indian cityscape.
Keywords	Ranbir Kaleka, Video Painting, Migrant Labor, Aesthetics of Erasure, Indian Contemporary Art, Liminality, Non-places
Field	Arts > Drawing
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On	2026-02-13

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