4th Sibling

The 4th Sibling traces a childhood shaped by an unseen brother — a god my mother raised as her youngest child. Through collage and archive, the work reveals how women’s invisible labour of devotion quietly builds entire worlds.

The 4th Sibling

I grew up with a sibling no one else could see. Each morning, I watched my mother prepare a small idol as if he were her youngest child—bathing him, selecting his clothes, singing softly, as she might to any of us. This figurine was more than symbolic; to us, he was our fourth sibling. Outsiders might have seen only an object, but in our home, nothing felt more real.

My mother sustained this practice for years. In our tradition, a ritual called Pran Pratishtha allows a deity’s idol to be adopted as kin. My mother embraced this fully, integrating the god-child into the fabric of family life. She fed him, cared for him, and responded to needs only she could perceive—an invisible labor of love that repeated itself each day.

The Politics of Care

Like much of women’s work, her devotion remained unseen by the world beyond our home. The care she gave was easily dismissed, since the recipient wasn’t “real” in the way others might expect. But that daily labor carried weight: it shaped how we lived, what we believed, and how love was expressed.

Her ritual was a quiet refusal. In a culture that diminishes domestic devotion, she created a space where nurturing became sacred. Her work was both faith and resistance—a rejection of the idea that this kind of care is trivial or expected. By centering an unseen child, she affirmed that this invisible labor had meaning.

Between Myth and Reality

The boundary between myth and memory was always soft. The deity moved from the sacred space into the everyday. I learned early on that belief isn’t separate from life—it’s built into it.

In this project, I return to our family archive and recompose it through collage. To assemble these images is itself a devotional act —gestures, fabrics, devotional objects—to construct language of touch, memory, and faith.

Through The 4th Sibling, I weave personal narrative with cultural critique. This story is mine, but it echoes countless women whose unseen rituals sustain the emotional and spiritual lives of their families. In many ways, everything I make circles back to my mother—her labor, her belief, her unseen home of love. It is a portrait of her, but also of an invisible sadness.

This project honors the world she built and stands as a testament to the politics of care and the presence of devotion. In creating images, I try to hold her world open—so what once lived in private might now be seen, quietly, in the lives of others.