Life Through An X-Ray: Tushar Waghela’s Exhibition Looks Beneath The Surface

What lies beneath the surface of the objects around us? For visual artist and filmmaker Tushar Waghela, that question opens a world of memory, emotion, faith and human connection. His exhibition X Marks Life uses X-ray imagery to look beyond the visible, turning everyday tools and toys into reflections of the lives we attach to them.

Looking Within

An axe reveals the texture of a spine and hands. A loudspeaker carries traces of ribs. A painter’s brush appears to hold the suggestion of a palm. Through digital interventions, drawings and prints, Waghela creates imagined interiors where the boundaries between the human body and the inanimate blur. “It started with a very simple curiosity, the desire to see what is inside something,” says Waghela. “X-ray is a metaphor for looking beyond what is visible.”

An artwork, ‘The Hammer’, uses X-ray images and digital graphics to reveal a tool’s imagined inner anatomy. Created between 2009 and 2020 as a 30 x 30-inch print on paper, it turns a familiar object into an extension of the hand, echoing the exhibition’s meditation on labour, touch and identity.

Travel And Visual Memory

The exhibition also finds a connection with travel. Waghela believes that moving through different places has shaped how he understands objects and their meanings. Museums, markets, religious sites, architecture and rituals become a part of his visual memory.

The Syndrome and the Society, an X-ray and digital graphic print, extends this idea into the social realm. Tushar says, “Travel has made me realise that our traditions may be different, but the human desire to create meaning, memory and emotional connections with things is quite universal.”

More Than An Object

This idea lies at the heart of X Marks Life. A tool can carry the marks of labour. A toy can hold childhood memories. An idol can become sacred through faith and ritual.

Elephant Wheel, a limited-edition print, transforms a mechanical toy through X-ray imagery, exposing its springs and inner construction. It reflects how objects can become vessels of memory, comfort, companionship and emotion. For Waghela, these relationships reveal something universal.