Raksha is a Central Saint Martins alumni and Senior Lecturer on BA Painting at Camberwell College of Art and Design. She was first approached by Judy Willcocks, Head of the CSM Museum & Study Collection, to purchase a piece of work for the collection. As they got to know and understand each other’s work, they applied jointly for a Diversity Matters grant from Museum Development London. This supported the research and creation of Tulsi, the Goddess of King’s Cross, a painting made by Raksha specifically for the collection.
She began by researching the social history of King’s Cross, specifically the development of the area in which Central Saint Martins now sits. Much her of current work explores gentrification through portraits of estates, reflections on her own experience of housing precarity exacerbated by rapid private development. As a student, she remembers walking around Somers Town and King’s Cross taking photographs. Returning to the area, she was particularly interested in the residential communities that had been displaced.
She discovered Philip Wolmuth’s photography of social housing tenants living in Somers Town in the 1980s and 90s. They document the spaces and conditions in which many immigrant and working-class families lived. Particularly drawn to photographs of South-Asian families, Raksha found Wolmuth’s work gave visibility to a community now dispersed, bringing to the surface people who have long since left area.
She met Jane Swan, a photographer and gardener who lived in Culross House and tended a community garden on the building’s rooftop. Jane shared her experience of being removed from Culross House and the dismantling of that residential community.
The final painting brings together two recurring themes in Raksha’s work: plants and housing. Back at the CSM Museum, she focused on the botanical print collection as a starting point:
She alighted on Tulsi or Holy Basil as a focus. “Tulsi has been brewing in my mind for years," Raksha says "It appears in Hindu mythology as a manifestation of Lakshmi and I can't think of another plant that is also a personification of a god. You worship the plant by tending to it, watering it, pruning it, keeping it happy because it's quite vulnerable. The plant needs a lot of attention.” The painting depicts the Tulsi dressed for her wedding to Vishnu who takes the form of Shaligram, an ammonite fossil.
The plant references specifically the South Asian communities that live in Somers Town but also the Midlands with the two places connected via the rail tracks from St Pancras. The plant reflects the need for care and nurture, from the rooftop garden to the many connected communities that make a place real.
Raksha’s delicate painting sets the plant against the backdrop of King’s Cross, in the background you can see the gasometers and the roof of the train station referencing landmarks still visible today. But her landscape is historic and now imagined, perhaps from a now-lost rooftop garden.
Through such commissions, the Museum is intent on surfacing the hidden histories within the collection. For example, the collection of 18th and 19th century botanical drawings activate discussions on the colonial roots of the climate crisis. “But we have another ambition,” explains head the Museum, Judy Willcocks, “that everybody who engages with the Museum, whatever their positionality or cultural background, can see something of themselves reflected in our work and in our collections. We wanted to be able to tell different stories that speak to our diverse community at UAL. And so, for the first time we commissioned an artist to make a new piece of work in response to our collections.”
Tulsi, the Goddess of King’s Cross is now part of CSM Museum & Study Collection and therefore is available to all current and future students at Central Saint Martins for study. “I can already see the potential for this painting to spark new conversations,” says Judy, “I’ve had the pleasure of doing gallery talks for students, watching visitors who have engaged with the display and looking at our online feedback form. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and the journey is only just beginning. I would like to personally thank Raksha for her generosity and the commitment she has shown to this project and for helping us to start these conversations.”
Tulsi, the Goddess of King's Cross is on show in our Window Galleries until 28 April.