‘Grandma’s Treasure’ Is An Intimate Portrait Of A Woman Told Through Her Belongings

I’ve always been captivated by archaeological discoveries like the sandalwood combs of the Indus Valley, the Roman oil lamps, shards of Chinese porcelain buried beneath layers of earth. These remnants, humble and worn, become intimate testimonies of how people once lived. A hand mirror etched in bronze, a spindle whorl, a child's clay toy; each one pulls the past closer, not through grand tales of war and triumph, but through everyday objects. They offer a lens into personal histories of people that we come to learn were not too different from ourselves.

It is with a similar impulse that Grandma’s Treasure, a visual project by Anshiqa operates. In it, a video collage of objects found in her grandmother’s almirah becomes a gentle excavation of memory, identity, and time. From aging cooking magazines and half-used Lakmé rose powder, nail polish to old cassette tapes, letters and envelopes, and a comb that still holds a trace of its user, the collection forms an unspoken portrait of a woman and the world she inhabited.

Unlike a traditional portrait, this is one composed entirely through possessions. The material fragments speak to a sensibility, a rhythm of life, and an aesthetic that was both personal and deeply cultural. The almirah, as described by Anshiqa, has remained untouched since the early 2000s, becoming a time capsule from that era.

This assemblage also evokes the peculiar Indian tendency to archive emotionally — where drawers, shelves, and closets become repositories not just of things but of sentiment. 'Postcards by An', an ongoing series frames this video within its broader vision, capturing 'that' childhood home where memory is ambient, tucked away into objects.

In revisiting her grandmother’s things, Anshiqa offers a deeply personal yet resonant meditation on domestic memory. In our culture, where affection is not always expressed directly, it often instead takes the shape of shared routines, and silent acts of care. Scavenging through our mothers’ and grandmothers’ things and seeking a piece of who they were as individuals, outside of the roles of a family system, becomes a form of intimacy and a way to feel close to them through their belongings.

Follow Anshiqa here.

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