by Arpita Shah
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
From 24th October

‘Modern Muse’ is a series of photographic portraits celebrating the identities and experiences of young South Asian women from Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Arpita Shah took these photographs in 2019. She is a photographer and film artist based in Eastbourne. Influenced by her own early experiences of migration, Shah’s art focuses on themes of home, diaspora, memory and shifting cultural identities.

Each portrait is paired with snippets from conversations between Shah and her sitters. They talk about identity, heritage, and representation, and answer the question ‘Where do you come from?’.

This series was commissioned by GRAIN Projects, and acquired by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, funded by a gift in the Will of Tessa Sidey, 2022.

The display can be found on the Bridge Gallery and also features Birmingham Museums’ important miniature portrait of Arjumand Banu Begum (Mumtaz Mahal) – the Taj Mahal was built as her tomb – as well as modern miniatures in the same style.

“I made ‘Modern Muse’ for South Asian girls and women, for them to feel represented. So, having a selection of this work acquired by Birmingham Museums Trust to become part of the city’s permanent collection, alongside traditional muses like Rossetti’s ‘Proserpine’ and Bunce’s ‘Musica’, is such a pivotal and special moment for me as a South Asian woman and female artist.

All the women from ‘Modern Muse’ have strong connections to Birmingham, which makes this acquisition feel even more special and very relevant. It is so important for art museums and galleries to reflect the diverse communities in the UK, and to represent their varied narratives.” – Arpita Shah.