Hetain Patel, a London-based British artist of Gujarati descent, recently held dual presentations in his home city in the UK, Mathroo Basha (Mother Tongue, October 11-12, 2024) and Come As You Really Are (July 18 - Oct 20, 2024). Together, they offer profound reflections on cultural identity, the immigrant experience and the often-overlooked significance of hobbies and personal passions. Presented during the Dance Umbrella Festival at The Pit in the Barbican Centre in London, Mathroo Basha unearths complex, multigenerational relationships to language and belonging within a British-Indian family. Meanwhile, in Croydon, Patel’s Come As You Really Are, commissioned by Artangel, is an expansive and whimsical archive of hobbies from across the UK, celebrating the idiosyncrasies and passions that form an unexpected yet powerful sense of identity. Together, these works invite audiences to engage with a fresh and inclusive view of heritage, revealing identity as both anchored in ancestry and alive in everyday pursuits.

Mathroo Basha includes movement and monologue and centres on Patel’s experiences of language and heritage, drawing on the voices of three generations of women in his family. Patel’s exploration is grounded in his personal connection to his ancestral language of Gujarati and how this language, at once intimate and foreign, signifies a cultural thread across generations. His mother, cousin and niece offer individual perspectives on this shared language: his niece, limited in vocabulary, recognises the cultural value of Gujarati despite her limited fluency; his cousin, fluent in Gujarati but with an internal world shaped primarily in English, illustrates a generational shift in linguistic identity; and his mother, effortlessly switching between Gujarati and English, embodies the flexibility of an immigrant generation that navigates both cultural worlds. Patel’s engagement with these stories highlights how language operates not only as a vehicle for communication but as a marker of identity and nostalgia and often, a source of internal conflict for those balancing dual identities.

At the heart of Mathroo Basha lies an intricate, hand-tufted carpet, patterned with vibrant red, orange and yellow florals reminiscent of one from Patel’s grandmother’s home. This carpet anchors the performance visually and thematically, serving as a persuasive metaphor for rootedness and continuity within the narrative about the importance and meaning of heritage within migrant communities. Handmade in Patel’s studio, the carpet is both an artefact of the past and an active component of storytelling, symbolising the textures and layers that underpin cultural identity. Patel’s movements, sometimes frenetic and at other times fluid, respond to the complex soundscape of his family members' voices, mirroring the nonlinear, sometimes disjointed relationship many immigrants have with their heritage.

One of the most captivating moments in Mathroo Basha occurs when Patel plays with a recording of his mother’s voice, layering his voice on top of hers in an inquiry that transforms language into sound and even abstraction. By altering the rhythm and repeating her words, Patel blurs the lines between meaning and experience, inviting the audience to consider language not only for its semantic value but as an emotional and sensory experience. This technique echoes the experience of many immigrant families where languages are shared but not always understood, existing as sounds that carry memory and resonance even when meaning eludes the listener. As Patel’s voice mingles with his mother’s, the performance reveals how immigrant identities are formed and transformed through a sometimes fragmented inheritance of language, stories and experiences.

Across London in Croydon, supported by Artangel, Come As You Really Are turns a defunct shop into a celebration of hobbies and personal passions. Dubbed The Hobby Cave by Patel, this space in the 1890s shopping mall Grants is packed with thousands of objects, collected over two years after a nationwide open call to hobbyists, each a testament to the often-quirky, intensely personal pursuits of people across the UK. From cosplayers and nail art innovators to collectors of carrier bags and chain-mail linkers, the array of hobbies Patel showcases reflects a remarkable spectrum of human creativity. Here, Patel repositions the concept of identity from one rooted in race or nationality to one built on passions and interests, showing how self-expression transcends conventional identity markers.

Interspersed among these collected objects are artefacts of Patel’s interest in public culture superheroes like Superman or Transformers and related artworks, including The Other Suit (2015), a Spiderman suit crafted from a tablecloth shown alongside his numerous Spiderman comics and a Fiesta Transformer (2013), a robot made from Patel’s first car with the help of his father in their family garage in Bolton. Both exemplify his interest in repurposing materials and suggest a playful yet profound reflection on the ways in which people construct and perform identity, whether through popular icons like Spiderman or personal mementoes. This interest continues through Somerset Road (2024), a full-scale Ford Escort covered in the same hand-tufted carpet used in Mathroo Basha, connecting the performance space to the installation and reemphasising how craft traditions intersect with everyday life.

In addition to these art objects, Patel presents a film, of the same title as the exhibition, capturing a range of hobbies outside the scope of the exhibition—from wild swimming to drone flying and custom car collecting—celebrating forms of passion and self-expression that lie beyond the scope of the exhibition itself. This piece serves as a poignant reminder that identity is not confined to nationality, race, or gender but can emerge from the simple act of creating, collecting, or engaging with the world. Patel’s reimagining of identity through hobbies offers a compelling counterpoint to his language-focused exploration of cultural inheritance in Mathroo Basha, extending the conversation to include how people find themselves in the routines and hobbies they love.

Patel’s artistic journey, which includes notable exhibitions at the Tate Modern and the Venice Biennale and awards such as the Derek Jarman Award and the Henry Moore Foundation Award, has consistently centred on themes of self, identity and community. His works are in the collections of the Tate, the British Council, Arts Council England, Manchester Art Gallery, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, M+ Museum Hong Kong and Fondazione in Between Art Film, Rome.

Beginning in early 2025, Come As You Really Are will tour the UK, offering audiences across Britain and Northern Ireland the chance to witness this celebration of hobbies and innate passions across the island. This nationwide tour will culminate in a major presentation at Factory International’s studios in Manchester from January to February 2026, underscoring Patel’s dedication to inclusivity and his vision of identity as an open, evolving dialogue. Through these ambitious projects, Patel invites us to embrace the multidimensional, often surprising ways in which we construct our sense of self, challenging audiences to see identity not as a fixed narrative but as an ever-changing, collective experience.