At Narratives in Transit, currently at Gallery Art Positive, Akanksha Patil shows work that comes out of time spent somewhere rather than time spent thinking about it from a distance. The exhibition returns, again and again, to Shivangaon on the edge of Nagpur, where houses are being pulled down to make way for an airport expansion. What’s on view doesn’t try to sum that up. It stays closer to fragments, to what can be carried and what cannot.
Akanksha first went to the village as a student, travelling there on weekends for outdoor study. It became, as she puts it, a place of “comfort… that became essential to my creative process.” That earlier attachment sits awkwardly beside what has happened over the last few years. Buildings have been dismantled, families moved out, the shape of the place altered beyond recognition. “I realised I was no longer looking at a simple ‘moving out’, but at forced migration,” she says. The difference is felt throughout the show, though it’s never spelt out.
The materials do much of the work. Corrugated sheets lean against one another, bricks appear in loose clusters, pieces of wood still bear marks of use. Nothing is disguised. The installations feel provisional, as if they could be shifted again, or taken apart. There’s a sense that these objects have arrived in the gallery without quite settling into it.
Akanksha spent over two years returning to Shivangaon, gathering photographs, recording conversations, and picking up what was left behind. A lot of that material doesn’t appear here. “Many stories told in confidence or photos of very private moments were left out… to protect the dignity of the residents,” she says. That decision is noticeable. The work doesn’t try to tell you everything. It keeps certain things back, and that restraint shapes how you move through it.
There are points where the exhibition sharpens. Drawings made by children from the village are shown alongside photographs taken during the demolition. Houses, trees, schoolrooms appear in crayon and pencil, direct and matter-of-fact. “Children often draw what they value most,” Akanksha notes. Seen next to images of broken walls and cleared land, those drawings land differently. They don’t explain anything. They sit there, holding their own ground.
Akanksha includes the children by name, along with snippets from conversations. It shifts the tone slightly. They aren’t there as background detail. The question of who gets to speak, and how, runs quietly through the show. Akanksha describes herself as “a temporary vessel for these stories,” which feels less like a statement and more like an attempt to describe an uneasy position. The work doesn’t resolve that tension. It leaves it open.
Curated by Georgina Maddox, the exhibition doesn’t push towards a larger claim about development, even though it would be easy to do so. It stays with Shivangaon, with what has been seen and gathered over time. What comes through is partial, sometimes indirect, and often held back. That seems deliberate. The show isn’t interested in offering a complete picture. It sticks with what remains, and with what resists being fully shown.
What: Narratives in Transit – A Solo Exhibition by Akanksha Patil
When: March 27 – April 27, 2026
Where: Gallery Art Positive, Old MB Road, New Delhi
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