When it comes to choosing the right garments or textiles for the right occasion, more often than not, we keep reiterating that there’s nothing to wear. But it is times when we slow down, or rather get consumed by the growing pile of textiles at home, that we truly start thinking about them. And by thinking, flashes of memories start coming back. That pretty frill frock which was a hand me down, or the beautiful satin shirt which was a birthday gift. Or that flowy yellow mid gown which one wore for the first date. While you consciously think about these snippets, what unconsciously happens is attaching textiles to memories and emotions. This is the very core of the art exhibition called Lived-in Skin: Textile as Armour as Memory. Curated by Bhavna Kakar, this ongoing display at LATITUDE 28 gallery shows the works of three eminent artists and the way they perceive emotional residue, inherited history or cross-generational memories through textiles.
This art exhibition brings together the works of artists Sabeen Omar, Meenakshi Nihalani and Anshu Singh. While their practice may be different, the final objective and message to the viewers is the same. Blending their unique styles with the overarching theme of the exhibition, the artists portray how textiles absorb gesture, time, and instances. Textiles and weaves are those repositories of migration, labour, displacement and survival that often evade the consciousness.
Sabeen Omar, who hails from Sri Lanka works with discarded fabrics, architectural forms and painted surfaces which traverse between preservation and transformation. She weaves between familiarity and estrangement through her works which speaks of emotional and spatial experiences.
Meenakshi Nihalani, on the other hand, approaches textiles through weaves, appliqué and other forms. One of the recurring subjects through her works are pickle jars which are means of representing knowledge, values and food recipes carried across borders during Partition. Her works point towards the fragility of persistent cultural inheritance.
Anshu Singh, a Delhi based artist brings to the exhibition the labour perception she works with textile scraps from garment and weaving units. The broad idea of her practice rests on the thought of textiles representing presence, omission, endurance, survival, politics, and more.
Through each weave, each fabric and each thread, the exhibition tells tales of holding on to traces. And this interacts with the viewers making them reciprocate what the artists want to tell through their works.
What: Lived –in Skin: Textile as Armour as Memory
Where: LATITUDE 28, New Delhi
When: till June 25, 2026
Timings: 11 am – 7 pm (Mon – Sun)
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels