Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative at Arthshila Delhi
A multidisciplinary exhibition Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative narrates India’s deep ties to water as a precious resource and a divine muse. Curated by Anjana Somany, the exhibition opened on 1 February and runs until 27 April 2025 at Arthshila Delhi. It is open from 11 AM to 7 PM, Tuesday through Sunday.
This interactive experience pairs history, culture and craft using playful tactile installations, audio explorations and illuminating reflections. Water is depicted as a flowing force that holds not just life, but creativity and spirituality in metamorphosis. The exhibition offers an insight into how water has shaped everything from sacred rites to artistic expressions in Indian life and retains relevance in the modern world.
Gallery Breakdown
The show is spread across three galleries
Gallery 1: Baoli – A Performative Experience showcases the historical significance of Indian step wells (Baolis), their ingenious technicality, and how they allowed civilizations to thrive in the arid region of the Indian subcontinent. Through a multi-sensory installation, the gallery considers the social, religious and architectural significance of water, but also stresses sustainability and community-led craftsmanship.
Gallery 2: Kalash — Fertility and Procreation. This space, features works that connect water to symbols of life and procreation, exploring themes of fertility, growth and sustainability in an art-historical sense as well as the contemporary. The gallery hearkens back to ancient symbols such as Lajja Gauri, whom it uses alongside installations that underscore the connection between water and creation.
Gallery 3: Aakhyan – Painted Mobile Narratives: Traditional Crafts explores mobile narrative traditions such as the Santhal Scrolls, Cherial Scrolls, Phad of Pabuji and the Kaavad that centre around water. Woven throughout India’s cultural texture, these painted stories carry knowledge and carry the narrative. The use of modern technology in the gallery reinterprets those traditions and further emphasizes water as a cultural element that continues to inspire art.
Visitors will experience a variety of craft traditions, storytelling practices and contemporary innovations that have sprung from water’s role in Indian society through curated spaces. The exhibition synthesizes interpretations of water, traditional and contemporary, and prompts contemplation of how such liquid flows have constituted “the hard and soft infrastructure of culture,” from architecture to folklore, survival to spirituality. Together, each work encapsulated how water has been a driving force that sparks innovation, taking the audience on a journey through India’s deep-seated craft traditions and how they continue to evolve.
Collaboration and Curation
A compilation of the scholarship of Naman P. Ahuja, Yatin Pandya, Judy Frater, and Nina Sabnani, with contemporary artistic voices — such as Made in Earth, Rhea John, Harsh Verma — and craft innovators, like Shama Pawar, Dhanalakota Rakesh, and Vijay Joshi, is included too in the exhibit, which has been curated by Anjana Somany and scenographed by Aparna Nambiar and Abhhay Narkar of Vertex Inc. This collaboration celebrates water as a thread that has always connected the past, the present, and the future of India, urging its audiences to discover what stories and wisdom were forgotten in nature.
A static calendar of conferences and meetings will be replaced by a dynamic, living, and diverse set of collateral events designed to complement the exhibition and explore particular aspects of the dialogue surrounding water issues that touch our urban and rural landscapes.
A diverse and dynamic range of collateral events has been designed to complement the exhibition and unpack various issues around water that relate to both our urban and rural landscapes.
Programming Schedule for February
The “Flowing Heritage” exhibition at Arthshila Delhi has a diverse program of events for February 2025. These include
- Okhla Art Night: A special evening event on February 7th.
- Ajrakh Workshops: Two workshops on February 8th and 9th focusing on Ajrakh printing with natural dyes, led by artisan Aurangzeb Khatri.
- Weekend Walkthroughs: Guided tours of the exhibition on February 8th and 16th.
- Panel Discussion: A discussion titled “Ajrakh, Water and Us” on February 8th, featuring experts like Judy Frater and moderated by Anjana Somany.
- Film Showcases: Screenings of “Against the Tide” on February 15th and films from the Bangalore Film Society and Voices from the Waters Film Festival on February 22nd and 23rd.
- Talk: A presentation on “The Stepwells of Gujarat in Art” by Jutta Jain-Neubauer on February 28th.
The March and April schedules will be released later.
Image Courtesy- Arthshila
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