Reclaiming stories and spaces

“How do museums tell stories? What do we leave out? How was/is power used?” These are some of the key questions at the heart of Khawaab Mahal and Absent Presence, two works by artist and writer Nasia Sarwar-Skuse, commissioned and co-created with Ways of Working, an arts and community platform for social change. 

Both pieces started their journey in South Wales and they grew through exploring collections at National Museum Wales and Powis Castle and engaging with communities in Cardiff. The result is a powerful response to Welsh, British and global histories of empire. 

Owen Griffiths from Ways of Working describes the ongoing collaboration, “We started working with Nusrat at Manchester Museum as our critical friend, helping us work with the staff and the community to kind of look at ideas of best practice that the South Asian Gallery has. Pioneered through community collaboration and community curatorial groups.” This partnership reflects a deep dialogue around how museums can become spaces of genuine community involvement. 

Reflecting on the impact of displaying the work in Manchester, Owen adds, “That’s a relationship that’s built on that dialogue.” But the bigger question remains. “Can a museum ever be decolonised?” 

Nasia herself raises the core of her film Absent Presence. She says, “It really speaks to the idea of visibility and what is that? What is present and what is absent and what is seen and what is not seen.” Featuring dancer Sanea Singh in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, the film captures a reclaiming of space through movement. Nasia explains, “It’s about taking up space in those places which have previously been denied to marginalised people. But it also speaks about history and memory.” 

The project carries a powerful emotional weight, inviting visitors to reimagine history by inserting their own experiences into the narrative, opening up a space where people can truly feel represented. As Nasia succinctly puts it, the work is about “making the invisible visible”. 

Khawaab Mahal invites visitors to step inside the world of Tipu Sultan, the legendary 18th-century ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in South India, through a reimagination of his tent, looted by British forces and now housed at Powis Castle. This installation creates a personal dialogue across time, with extracts from Tipu’s dream journal printed inside. As Nasia shares, the tent “became a symbol of British domination, often used for garden parties, an insult to its original purpose.” 

Together, these works build on a legacy of artists challenging museum narratives, the team recalling Fred Wilson’s groundbreaking Mining the Museum installation, which exposed what museums choose to omit. 

Through this collaboration and these installations, Ways of Working and Nasia Sarwar-Skuse invite visitors not only to witness but to participate: to insert their own stories, question histories, and envision a future where museums can truly reflect all voices. 

Khawaab Mahal and Absent Presence, commissioned by Ways of Working for National Museum Wales, are showing in Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery from 29 May to 31 August 2025.