Baa's House 3

Hetain Patel

Hetain Patel is a British artist and filmmaker whose work explores identity, migration, family and belonging through film, performance, sculpture and installation. Drawing upon personal experience and close collaborations with family members, friends and communities, Patel creates works that challenge assumptions about culture, representation and who gets to occupy positions of visibility and power.

Born in Bolton to a family of Indian heritage, Patel has developed a distinctive practice that combines humour, choreography, storytelling and popular culture to examine how identities are formed and understood. His works frequently blur the boundaries between autobiography and performance, using familiar references drawn from everyday life to explore broader questions surrounding race, class, masculinity, migration and cultural inheritance. Whether working with dance, film or sculpture, Patel approaches identity as something fluid, negotiated and continually in motion.

In 2021, Patel collaborated with CIRCA and the Film London Jarman Award on Baa’s House 11, a moving tribute to his grandmother and the countless migrant matriarchs whose contributions often remain unseen. Broadcast across public screens in London, Milan, New York, Seoul and Tokyo, the commission transformed some of the world’s most visible advertising spaces into monuments to care, memory and cultural continuity. Featuring Patel’s grandmother, performed by Kathak dancer Vina Ladwa, the work challenged conventional representations of power by placing an older immigrant woman at monumental scale above the city. Accompanied by a series of editions derived from the interiors of his grandmother’s home in Bolton, the project explored how domestic spaces become repositories of personal and collective history.

Patel’s work has been presented internationally at institutions including Tate Modern, Sadler’s Wells, the Venice Biennale, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing and the Hayward Gallery’s British Art Show. Winner of the Film London Jarman Award and recognised for his ability to connect deeply personal narratives with wider social questions, he continues to create works that expand our understanding of identity while celebrating the richness and complexity of lived experience.

Through humour, generosity and a profound attention to the people around him, Hetain Patel reveals how the stories that shape our lives are often found not in grand historical narratives, but within the everyday relationships, gestures and spaces we inherit.