Centering the humble residences of Nepal, Hitesh Vaidya’s practice explores how domestic objects and architectural spaces are signifiers of a community’s shared memory and its ancestry. His hyperrealist paintings on unconventional surfaces initiate a dialogue between people’s daily habits and the materiality of religious offerings in Nepali homes. This crossover embodies the hybridization of belief systems in Nepal (Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, amongst other Indigenous spiritual cosmological matrices). Vaidya’s artistic vocabulary expands the concepts of archaeology and heritage in the context of Nepal, where cultural heritage is heavily part of its nation-building, often instrumentalized in internal politics, romanticized and, at times, eroticized by foreign perspectives. For the artist, ubiquitous objects and the ways they are arranged inside people’s private spaces, along with their simplicity and assuming beauty, are equally transcendental as a holy religious site. Vaidya is also a founding member of Aakrit collective, based in Bhaktapur.