Hailing from New Delhi, India - a city that was once famous for its religious pluralism and has been growing exponentially more sectarian Raghvi Bhatia witnessed firsthand how integral aspects of human society are wielded by organized religion, to further their insular, often theocratic, agendas. In response to this myopic and exclusionary tendency that she observed in existing religions, Bhatia developed her artistic practice as an alternative model for a functional religious sect— positioned as an offshoot of contemporary art, which she also considers to be a religion— as a method to salvage these valuable and increasingly scarce spiritual aspects. Framing her art practice as a sect upends conventional conceptions of religion, creating room to question complicated notions of purity, morality and absolutism. The sect (created as a local religion) provides a coherent worldview to organize her practice and govern her work, as evidenced in Intermediations, Bhatia’s first solo show in the United States.