A provocative, heartfelt voyage through memory and identity: Coventry’s south Asian heritage comes vividly to life in an immersive exhibition.
Step into the living room recreated for the Stories That Made Us show, where a stereo fills the air with Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge, the iconic Hindi anthem from Sholay celebrating friendship and love. Nearby, a bottle of Johnnie Walker rests beside a red glass decanter, and the table is lined with copies of Des Pardes, a Punjabi newspaper whose name translates to “home abroad.” This intimate vignette depicts the childhood home of Coventry-born curator and artist Hardish Virk, one of several rooms in an installation at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. The show traces four decades of South Asian experiences in Britain, from arrival to adaptation amid shifting social, political, and cultural landscapes.
Virk, now 54, says the concept grew from a simple idea: a living museum of South Asian stories. He envisioned a space where narratives could unfold across generations and decades, allowing visitors to witness how lives intersect with history.
A hand-lettered sign at the gallery entrance conveys the curatorial message: “My family story is part of a tapestry of stories that exist throughout Coventry and beyond – stories of migration, home, family, friendship, community and culture.”
The exhibition blends photographs, music, and oral histories from Virk and his family’s archives. It opens with footage of border controls at airports and scenes of South Asian communities arriving in the UK during the 1960s, grounding the modern story in a longer historical arc that reaches back to the East India Company’s founding in 1600 and the two centuries of British colonial rule.
Visitors are guided through Virk’s childhood living room on St George’s Road, Coventry, where pamphlets and books from his late father, Harbhajan Singh Virk, pay homage to anti-racist activism in the 1970s—through affiliations with the Indian Workers’ Association, the Indian Youth Association, and the UK Communist Party. Among the materials is a leaflet calling for protests following the racist murder of teenager Satnam Singh Gill in Coventry in 1981.
Virk highlights the significance of South Asian community activism in the Midlands, especially amid recent spikes in racially motivated incidents, including assaults on Sikh women. He explains that the “hostile environment” his parents faced in their era mirrors today’s challenges, which is precisely what the passport-control space aims to illuminate.
While his parents would likely lament what he calls the current normalization of racism, Virk insists their struggles laid the groundwork for today. “There was a time when this exhibition wouldn’t have been possible,” he notes, and their legacy makes this project feasible.
The show also recreates Virk’s teenage bedroom, offering a snapshot of 1980s South Asian youth in Britain—posters of Michael Jackson and Madonna beside a newspaper highlighting bhangra talent. “Being born here means crafting an identity that’s deeply intersectional,” Virk observes. “Friends, relationships, music, fashion, cinema—all of it.”
A radio studio space honors Virk’s late mother, Jasvir Kang, whose Punjabi-language broadcasts in the 1990s shared poems that often addressed domestic violence. Including this space underscores the important, though often overlooked, role of South Asian women in shaping culture and challenging the status quo.
The exhibit concludes with a reflection area designed to help visitors process difficult memories stirred by the displayed stories. Guests are invited to add their own reflections, turning the gallery into a space for communal processing.
Audience responses have varied—from poignant revelations about racism and violence to gratitude for a transformative, cathartic experience. One visitor wrote about carrying a graffiti-stained memory from childhood, while another described the journey as joyous, emotional, and profoundly moving. The overall sentiment: this exhibit embodies a deeply personal and collective history, connecting individual experiences to broader social narratives.
Stories That Made Us: Roots, Resilience, Representation is showing at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until 25 May 2026.
