Ruptured Doorways of Our Past is an installation that reflects on the fragile state of heritage under the combined pressure of the climate crisis and unsustainable human intervention.

The work was developed in response to ICOMOS’s World Heritage Day 2022 theme, Heritage and Climate, which called for inclusive dialogue and just climate action through the safeguarding of cultural and built heritage. In the same spirit, Parampara, the Aurora Heritage Club organised a photography competition to both celebrate and critically respond to climate injustice impacting vulnerable and marginalised heritage sites. The installation was conceived to exhibit selected photographs from the competition while making the theme physically legible in space.

Sand was spread across the room as a deliberate disruption: a material that feels out of place, echoing the way climatic patterns are increasingly out of place. Against a monochromatic backdrop, a series of vivid magenta door frames constructed from PVC pipes (intentionally plastic) formed a stark, unnatural threshold. White textiles hung from these frames, holding the photographs on pristine fabric. Over time, the sand threatened to seep upward, staining and compromising what appears clean and protected.

Through this tension between the fragile textile and the invasive sand, the installation stages heritage as a vulnerable archive, and asks what it means to delay action. It positions cultural and built heritage as doorways to our past at risk, and in urgent need of protection.