Baa's Gold, National Gallery, 2021 Performance

'Baa’s Gold 10' recounts the story of the burglary of Hetain Patel’s ‘Baa’, or grandmother in Gujarati, whilst at home in Bolton where she lived alone. In a pursuit for gold, Patel’s Baa endured a violent ordeal at the hands of a gang of men who specifically targeted Hindu widows for their cultural tradition of only wearing gold jewellery. As the story is recounted multiple times in the form of a spoken screenplay by a group of performers, Baa regains her own agency, enacting revenge in the final version of the screenplay.

Patel’s performances processes events from his own biography through a range of media, often recounting these stories in various ways. Patel presents his own domestic British Indian story in amongst the Western canon of art history as equally epic and fantastical, using both the traditional act of live performance, and the modern form of cinematic storytelling.

Performed on 19 November 2021 at the National Gallery as part of 'Dance to the Music of Our Time', a live exhibition that explores the relationship of storytelling and contemporary art through the use of movement, dance and choreography.

WATCH FULL PERFORMANCE HERE