Hema Shironi observes history of colonization, civil war, displacement and migration, which she highlights through personal stories and experiences of living in Sri Lanka. Hema states that her practice focuses on the human and universal aspects of the conflict. Her work is driven by the nostalgia of the numerous places she has called home and how each community belonging to those places grapples with concerns of language, culture, memory, myth, gender, and equality. Sri Lanka is a vibrant country with a multitude of overlapping and cultural trajectories, where many languages, religions, and historical communities coexist. Rented Shadows and Neighbours sheds light on the obscure issues of identity that stem from historically marginalized communities in a visually layered narrative. The wide range of materials used in the collection reflects the cultural diversity experienced on Hema’s migratory routes. Sri Lanka is a place where hopes, dreams, desires, and delusions are enclosed in a country that continues to live on with the broken reality of the past.