What is history if not a chronicle of the past? A chronicle of people, of places and their lives. An attempt to capture a mood of a place at a certain point in time, in all its myriad dimensions. Remember the paintings of Thomas and William Daniell? The manner in which (ref https://www.tallengestore.com/collections/thomas-daniell) they captured iconic structures and the landscape around in their travels through India in the late 18th century CE became an incredible chronicle of those monuments – some of which no longer exist. Others such as Felice Beato and Joseph Beglar did similar work, via photography. Today, what is missed is such visual chronicling – perhaps a travesty in an age where everyone has a camera phone in their hands.

Hidden Heritage Art is an initiative to create contemporary visual chronicles of heritage sites in the current environment. Hidden Heritage founder Arjun Kumar works with various artists to capture multiple monuments on a collective canvas.

The Bengal Temple is a patachitra form painting created by the brilliant Anjana Datta capturing multiple Bengal temples collectively.

In the ‘Kite’ series, Hidden Heritage curator Arjun Kumar partners with the wonderfully talented Shashank Gautam, who has honed his skills at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), to capture what is imagined to be a kite’s view of certain sites.