Abhi Topiwala & Bhavesh Bhuthadia

Bhavesh Bhuthadia and Abhi Topiwala team up once again to build on and explore beyond the foundations of their original 2018 public artwork, 'Bhoj Bhavan' as part of AAA2018's Eat My Culture series. Remaining for 5 years on the window of Great India Restaurant on Manners Street, the work became an unexpected longtime fixture in the space that left an impression on the Pōneke city centre.

For AAA2024, the duo will revive the raw ingredients and spices that danced between architectural-henna, and fabric printing in a new light. Each frame of animated ingredients is used as a puzzle piece to overlay onto one another to reveal a new image. Integrating the research of Abhi’s Master of Design and Bhavesh’s skills as a multidisciplinary designer, the pair prepare and present a fresh new banquet for passersby – a visual feast. 

This work brings together the growth of the two practitioners and interlaces their continuation of looking into identity, third culture as well as creative approaches to building on communicating ideas of migration, displacement, and being of the Indian diaspora. With both creatives being born in Tāmaki Makaurau to Gujarati Indian families, this work aspires to demonstrate what can come from the colliding of seemingly similar world views, navigating different creative paths and having Aotearoa as home. This work will be opening on-site at Great India on Friday 19 April.