At ‘The Space Between’ in Ojas Art gallery, there is a meditative calm. The ongoing show by Siddhartha Das and Chiara Nath brings together works that span botanical studies, sculptural forms, embroidery, and architectural interpretations. At its core is an exploration of how traditional craft and contemporary design intersect, with ideas moving fluidly across materials, mediums, and meanings.
The Space Between shows how one rethinks about the use of space today
A significant strand of the exhibition draws from Das’s engagement with mythological and historical spaces, including interpretations of the Jagannath Temple in Puri for the Odisha Department of Tourism, the wooden model of Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, and Ashtamangala gateways installation for Kempegowda airport in Bengaluru drawing from Chola sculptural traditions. Rather than documenting these sites, he approaches them as living, evolving environments.
As a school student Das was interested in history. His two-decade-long design practice has been shaped by an interest in heritage, craft traditions, and museum work, following his engagement with craft communities in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. “When I graduated design school, I wanted to make crafts and the kind of historicity that would be factual and otherwise become part of our projects.”
Over time, this evolved into an approach that blends research with making at his design studio. “For us, a lot of the work begins with research. But what excites us is how that research manifests—into objects, works, films,” he says, adding, “With crafts, what began as livelihood projects grew into installations and collaborations with traditional makers blending them with modern and industrial processes.”
Temple and stepwell forms appear as studies of structure, geometry, and light. Models and visualisations translate experiential spaces into forms that can be engaged with. The aim is not preservation in the conventional sense, but creating new ways for audiences to access and understand spaces that are layered, symbolic, and often complex. There are also short films being screened that show the process-driven glimpses into how these works come into being.
Botanical memory
Running parallel to these architectural explorations is Das’s extensive botanical series. Its origins trace back to his childhood, spent in the natural surroundings of Rishi Valley School, where he sketched plants and insects as part of a nature club. Years later, encounters with botanical paintings in London, brought him back to the subject.
Initially it began as an attempt to reproduce historical botanical studies from the British era. “Later, I thought, why would I only reproduce?” he recalls. “So I was drawn to creating something new.”
Flowers such as marigold, hibiscus, narcissus, and bougainvillea are treated as subjects of close observation. Working with miniature painters, these forms are dissected, photographed, and reassembled, eventually rendered in a visual language that draws from Company School naturalism and modern stylisation.
The botanical thread extends beyond painting. The plant forms reappear as pressed specimens, plaster casts, brass and marble impressions in works like ‘Floral Archives’ and ‘Where Banana Trees Grow’. In one sense, they feel preserved—almost fossilised. “We are very drawn to materiality,” he says. “The idea that something can travel across materials—and even become unrecognisable—is exciting.”
Memory, material and the personal
If Das’s work engages with history and landscape, Nath’s contributions draw from memory and personal experience. Trained as a designer, she is clear about how she defines her practice. “I don’t see myself particularly as an artist,” she says. “I see myself as someone who fulfills a need, who solves a problem.”
Her embroidered pieces, including ‘Nani Ki Yaad’ and ‘My Father’s Office’, draw from fragments of lived experience—her mother’s garden, her father’s workspace. While rooted in design thinking, these works move into a more fluid, emotional space. “Design has always had storytelling. But here, it becomes less linear—more internal,” she explains.
Introduced to embroidery during her early design career, Nath reclaims it here as a medium of self-expression. Created in collaboration with artisans from Shahnagar, the works reflect a shared sensibility of restraint and detail, shaping both palette and form.
Across her practice, boundaries between design and art, structure and softness, are deliberately blurred. “I’m quite agnostic to material,” she says. “As long as it fulfills the purpose of the idea.” Even the distinction between “traditional” and “contemporary” feels irrelevant. “For me, it’s all one thing,” she says. “We are an amalgam of many spaces.”
One language, many forms
Das, with over two decades rooted in scenography, heritage, and craft-led spatial practice, approaches work through research, history, and material processes. Nath, trained as a designer, frames her work through problem-solving, storytelling, and personal memory.
Despite their different approaches, Das and Nath find common ground in process and curiosity. Their collaboration, which began two years ago through a chance introduction at a Rotary Club event in Delhi, thrives on this difference, “but we have enough curiosity to learn from each other”, Nath admits.
In the show, tradition and experimentation are not positioned as opposites, but as parts of the same continuum. Craft meets industry, nature meets geometry, and personal memory intersects with collective histories. “I think they can—and should—coexist,” Nath says. “We shouldn’t be in silos. We are trying to get us beyond those silos.”
On view at Ojas Art, Mehrauli, until May 3. The gallery is open from 11 am to 7 pm.
This article is written by Adithi Reena Ajith