To the guy (i'm not) going to marry (2024)
Keya Sanghavi
14 x 22 x 1.3 cm
Paper, Tape, Thread
To the guy i’m (not) going to marry is a hand-bound facsimile of an actual journal created for an ex-boyfriend. This intimate piece chronicles the relationship from its first date to its last day, preserving bittersweet memories through personal handwriting, sketches, and candid reflections. The book’s craftsmanship mirrors the durability of memory—bound in a way that resists erasure, much like the permanence of lived experiences. Using the aesthetic of traditional bookbinding and the rawness of journal entries, this work transforms a private act of documentation into a tangible archive. The book invites viewers to witness the vulnerability of love’s timeline, serving as a poignant reminder of the indelibility of emotional history.
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you keep me up at night (2024)
Keya Sanghavi
14 x 22 x 5 cm
Handbound Photo album, ‘Photographs’
you keep me up at night is a hand-bound photo album that explores the intimate and often disruptive nature of memory and its connection to vulnerability. Through fragments of conversations and sleepless thoughts, the piece examines how memories are both preserved and reshaped, reflecting the paradox of holding onto the past while constructing palatable narratives.
Juxtaposing the tactile quality of analogue processes with a clinical aesthetic, the work highlights the tension between raw emotional experiences and the human impulse to categorise and control them. It delves into the duality of intimacy—its capacity to bring both joy and discomfort—while revealing the emotional labour required to maintain an archive of personal history. By isolating these moments, the work invites viewers to consider the fragility, resilience, and transformative power of human connection.
Keya Sanghavi is an interdisciplinary artist from Mumbai, currently based in New York. Her work is shaped by the people who have left an imprint on her life—family, mentors, and close friends. Through her practice, she explores themes of love, memory, and identity, often grounding her ideas in personal experiences and relationships.
Growing up in India, her cultural background and the stories passed down to her continue to influence how she thinks about connection and belonging. Her process is deeply reflective, using art to hold onto fleeting emotions and moments that might otherwise fade. For Keya, creating isn’t just about expression—it’s about building bridges between the personal and the universal, inviting others to find themselves in her work. She’s drawn to the intersections of different ideas and disciplines, always looking for ways to challenge herself and those who engage with her art. At its core, her work is a conversation about the ways relationships shape who we are and how we see the world.
Artist Statement
I make art to explore the moments that linger just beneath the surface—the ones that are uneasy, raw, and unresolved. My work is rooted in the tension between comfort and discomfort, where vulnerability feels both fragile and powerful. I want to hold space for that discomfort, to let it stretch and fill a room, forcing those who encounter my work to pause and reflect.
The people in my life—especially, strangers who’ve become something more—anchor my practice. Their stories and the imprints they’ve left on me are where my ideas begin. But I’m not interested in nostalgia or resolution. Instead, I focus on the unsettled: the silences in conversations, the weight of things left unsaid, and the fleeting moments that feel too complicated to name.
I approach my work with a sense of curiosity and unease, drawn to the ways connection can simultaneously hold us together and pull us apart. This balance of intimacy and discomfort becomes a mirror, one that hopefully asks viewers to sit with what they might otherwise avoid.
I’m not looking for answers. My goal is to create work that lingers—a sensation, a memory, a question that refuses to fade. It’s in that lingering, in the messy in-between, that I hope reflection begins.