For many artists, place is more than a geographical location. It can become a source of identity, memory, observation and creative inspiration. In the work of contemporary Indian artist Satyabhama Majhi, the idea of place occupies an important position. Her artistic journey connects urban environments, rural communities, indigenous landscapes and public spaces, creating a visual exploration of what it means to belong to a particular cultural and geographical world.
Based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Majhi has developed a multidisciplinary practice involving painting, sculpture, installation, photography, mixed media, public art and community-based projects. Her work frequently examines relationships between people and their surroundings, while also considering the effects of social and environmental change.
Rather than treating place as a fixed background, Majhi approaches it as something lived, experienced and continuously transformed.
Place as an Artistic Starting Point
Artists often begin with what they see around them. For Majhi, observation of people, environments and everyday experiences has been an important part of her artistic development.
Her connection with Odisha provides a strong regional foundation for her practice. The state’s cities, villages, landscapes and cultural traditions offer a wide range of visual experiences.
At the same time, her work does not remain limited to one geographical environment. Her artistic activities have taken her into different communities and public spaces, allowing her to encounter contrasting ways of life.
These experiences have contributed to a broader understanding of place—not simply as a location on a map, but as a combination of people, memories, traditions, landscapes and everyday activities.
Bhubaneswar and Urban Belonging
Bhubaneswar represents one important dimension of Majhi’s relationship with place.
As a growing city, Bhubaneswar contains layers of cultural history alongside contemporary urban development. Streets, neighbourhoods, buildings and public spaces are continually changing.
For an artist, such changes provide opportunities for observation.
Majhi’s interest in urban life reflects the people and environments of contemporary Odisha. Everyday activities and ordinary encounters can become artistic subjects, allowing familiar surroundings to be viewed from a new perspective.
Her work demonstrates that urban life can contain its own forms of cultural memory and identity.
Beyond the City
While the urban environment is important, Majhi’s practice extends far beyond the city.
Her long-term engagement with rural and indigenous communities has introduced another dimension to her understanding of place. Through sustained interaction and observation, she has explored cultural practices, livelihood patterns, traditional visual forms and relationships with the natural environment.
This approach allows her to encounter places through the experiences of the people who live there.
It also challenges the idea that a landscape can be understood simply by looking at it. A place has meanings that emerge through everyday life, cultural practices and community knowledge.
Niyamgiri and the Idea of Belonging
The Niyamgiri region occupies a significant position in Majhi’s artistic exploration of landscape and culture.
Her engagement with the Dongaria Kondh community has allowed her to observe relationships between people, land and traditional knowledge.
Here, belonging is closely connected with the environment.
Mountains, forests and natural resources are not merely physical surroundings. They can be connected with livelihood, cultural practices, spiritual traditions and collective identity.
Majhi’s artistic response to Niyamgiri reflects an effort to understand these relationships through observation and engagement rather than simply using the landscape as an aesthetic subject.
The Mountain as a Symbol
The recurring triangular form in Majhi’s visual language provides an example of how place can become symbol.
Influenced by the visual culture associated with the Dongaria Kondh community, the triangle can evoke the silhouette of the Niyamgiri hills. It can therefore carry associations with landscape, stability, sacred geography and cultural identity.
A geographical feature is transformed into a visual element.
This transformation demonstrates how an artist can move from observation to interpretation. The mountain is no longer only something seen; it becomes part of a broader artistic vocabulary.
Learning From Communities
Majhi’s approach to community engagement is closely connected with her understanding of belonging.
Rather than viewing communities only as subjects, her practice involves observation, listening and participation.
This distinction is important.
When an artist spends time with a community, cultural knowledge can be understood through lived experiences rather than through isolated visual references. Everyday activities, materials, stories and patterns can reveal how people relate to their environment.
Such experiences can influence artistic decisions while also encouraging greater awareness of the communities represented in contemporary art.
Natural Materials and Local Identity
Materials can also communicate a sense of place.
Majhi’s exploration of natural pigments is connected with her interest in the environments and traditional knowledge of Odisha. Materials including turmeric, charcoal, chalk stone, geru soil and brown stone can be processed and used as artistic pigments with appropriate binders.
These materials carry physical associations with the natural world.
Their use in contemporary artworks creates a connection between the artwork and the environment from which the materials originate.
In this way, material becomes part of the story of place.
Public Spaces and Shared Belonging
Majhi’s involvement in public art introduces another interpretation of belonging.
Public spaces are shared by people with different backgrounds and experiences. A mural or public artwork can temporarily or permanently transform how a space is perceived.
Her public-art projects in Odisha demonstrate how art can become part of everyday surroundings rather than remaining confined to galleries.
Projects and murals associated with public spaces, cultural activities and sporting events have provided opportunities for art to reach wider audiences.
Public art can therefore create a sense of shared visual experience.
Art and Community Identity
Community-based art can also strengthen the connection between artistic expression and local identity.
When people participate in creative projects, their knowledge and experiences can influence the final work. This makes art a space where different voices can meet.
Majhi’s work across schools, villages, urban neighbourhoods and community settings reflects this participatory dimension.
Her practice suggests that cultural identity can be expressed collectively through artistic activities.
Children and the Experience of Place
Majhi’s work with children provides another perspective on belonging.
For approximately 15 years, she has been involved in art education and workshops with children and educational communities. Her approach encourages children to draw from observation, memory and personal experience rather than simply copying predetermined images.
The subjects children choose—trees, animals, festivals, household activities, village journeys and familiar surroundings—can reveal their relationship with place.
A child’s drawing can therefore become a small record of personal and cultural experience.
Through art education, Majhi encourages young participants to recognise the creative value of the environments they already know.
From Local Experience to National Platforms
Although place is central to Majhi’s practice, her work has not remained confined to Odisha.
Her exhibitions, residencies, public-art projects and collaborative initiatives have connected her regional experiences with wider Indian art networks.
Her participation in People’s Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi at the New Parliament House in 2023 represents one example of this movement from regional experience to a national cultural platform.
The project brought together women artists and artisans from different parts of India, creating an environment in which regional artistic traditions could contribute to a larger national cultural expression.
Majhi’s role as a Co-Sutradhar and creative contributor positioned her within this collaborative process.
A Dialogue Between Different Worlds
One of the defining characteristics of Majhi’s practice is the movement between different environments.
The city and the village, the gallery and the public wall, contemporary art and traditional knowledge, individual creativity and collective participation all appear within her broader artistic journey.
These are not presented as completely separate worlds.
Instead, they interact.
Her practice demonstrates how an artist can learn from different places and carry those experiences into new contexts without losing their original cultural significance.
Belonging in a Changing Society
The meaning of belonging can change as environments change.
Urban development can transform neighbourhoods. Economic changes can affect rural livelihoods. Environmental pressures can influence relationships with natural resources. New generations can experience traditions differently from previous generations.
Majhi’s work responds to these realities through artistic observation and participation.
Her practice asks audiences to consider not only where people live, but how they develop emotional, cultural and social relationships with those places.
Conclusion
Satyabhama Majhi’s artistic journey demonstrates how deeply place can influence contemporary art.
From the urban environment of Bhubaneswar to the landscapes of Niyamgiri, from community spaces and schools to national public-art projects, her work explores the many ways people connect with their surroundings.
Her paintings, natural-pigment works, public artworks, multidisciplinary projects and community initiatives reveal an artistic interest in the relationships between landscape, culture, memory and identity.
For Majhi, belonging is not simply about geography. It emerges through experience, participation, observation and connection.
By bringing local environments and cultural knowledge into contemporary artistic conversations, she demonstrates how an artist can remain rooted in place while engaging with audiences far beyond it. Her work ultimately presents place as something living—shaped by people, remembered through culture and continually reinterpreted through art.