Can you describe your Alice work – what materials you use, and what the process is?

Central to my art is the fusion of images from Hindu religious stories and European stories I grew up with as a British-born Asian girl. I create hybrid characters belonging to two different stories: part Alice In Wonderland, part Hanuman the monkey god.

These characters inhabit their own stories, which are suggested by sequences of images. Where have these characters come from? What are they doing and where are they going? These are all questions of identity and place, questions that feature in Alice In Wonderland in which an innocent yet fearless and forthright girl embarks on a journey and returns home.

Where did the idea for this fusion come from?

The initial ideas came from exploring aspects of my own cultural identity. Considering the enormous question of “Who am I?”, I decided to focus on the childhood stories I grew up with. I enjoyed books and would spend my summers in Kenya reading about Alice’s weird and wonderful journeys alongside Hindu religious stories, which were equally bizarre and fantastic.

I became interested in using the imagery from these stories and wanted to recreate characters which were almost hybrids constructed from both stories, characters that belong to two very different histories yet are somehow entwined.

And why Alice in particular? Why do you like her?

I was fascinated by Alice’s adventures, and by who she was, so she became the symbol that I chose to use. Alice embarks on this journey on her own and the strange individuals she meets are usually indifferent, self-absorbed and in some way hostile. It’s a difficult journey where most of her companions make unreasonable demands. Her world is turned upside-down and back-to-front, where things go every way except the way they are supposed to go.

I was also interested in how the image of Alice is so strong and how we can recognise her from just her clothing – her distinctive blue dress and stripy tights is all we need to recognise the icon.

One of the strong recurring images is the tea cup. Thinking about the origins of tea, and its important role in English society, did you think of this as partly a way of bridging a cultural gap?

Tea is so much part of my history and present. Tea is something that is very important and an integral part of both British and Indian culture – it is part of the ceremony of arriving home!

What reaction have you had to the work – have people been shocked by your use of religious imagery in something that isn’t sacred art?

The religious imagery and my use of it in my photographs are, in my opinion, not blasphemous. I have been brought up as a Hindu and the images I use are very important and dear to me. There has been a small minority of Hindu Asians who have been offended by my use of these images and that is unfortunate because it is not my intention.

It has brought up all sorts of interesting dialogues about ownership of icons and images. Who owns them? And why should I not be allowed to use images that are part of my culture to express what I feel – it’s interesting to think that one of reasons why I love and live in this country is that we have freedom of expression. It’s also one of the reasons why my parents have stayed here.

I am also interested in using my work as a tool for education. For almost ten years I have worked as an artist educator with children and young people, using my work to share information about Hindu religious stories with a strong interest in exploring the comparisons between different religious stories.

And finally… choose an icon of England!

It has to be a cup of tea. I am very interested in the origins of tea and its journey, and also in how tea has such an important role in so many different cultures. I am fascinated by the way tea is used to welcome people into our homes and has become a great universal ceremony. From a visual point of view, the image of the teacup is fantastic to draw!