Inside SIKAO’s debut, where design behaves like narrative rather than décor

Mumbai has never lacked spectacle, yet SIKAO arrives without leaning on excess. Its debut exhibition, Objects of Desire, staged at IFBE in Ballard Estate this March, proposes a different kind of encounter. One rooted in attention, memory and sensory charge rather than scale or shock. The travelling gallery’s first outing feels closer to a constructed experience than a commercial launch, shaped by the belief that objects can hold emotional residue long after their function is understood.

The travelling gallery’s first outing feels closer to a constructed experience than a commercial launch

Founded by Pinky Daga and her son Kabbier Daga, SIKAO positions itself as nomadic by design. It has no fixed address and no interest in becoming a permanent container. Instead, each exhibition is treated as a temporary composition, calibrated to its setting and audience. The debut gathers collectible works across ceramic, metal, stone and textile, all available for acquisition. Yet the emphasis rests firmly on encounter rather than transaction. Ownership here feels like an extension of intimacy rather than its conclusion.

Pinky’s background in theatre underpins the gallery’s conceptual framework. Accustomed to working with live, fleeting moments, she resists the assumption that permanence belongs solely to physical form. “Stories and the way we imagine them whether in our minds or in actual tangible physical things we can touch are always permanent,” she says. “In every human mind a story always has a picture.” At SIKAO, the objects act as those pictures made tangible, snapshots of desire, memory and interior life rendered in material.

That approach shapes the gallery’s narrative-led identity. The term is not used as curatorial jargon but as a working method. Sometimes the story arrives first, rooted in emotion or recollection, and the search for objects follows. At other moments, the object asserts itself, unsettling or soothing without explanation. Pinky describes how a decorative teapot can unexpectedly collapse time, carrying the viewer back to afternoons shaped by habit and care. “Sometimes we look for things that can define our thoughts or emotions,” she reflects. “And sometimes the piece or art or object is so powerful it can inspire us or soothe us in surprising ways. It tells its own tale.”

Language plays a critical role in how those tales are shared. A literature enthusiast by instinct, Pinky approaches design as a form of storytelling rather than taxonomy. “Since we see the world in stories or in my case see the world as a stage,” she explains, “language allows us to capture the essence and the energy of a particular piece and offer that view to the world.” Text at SIKAO does not prescribe interpretation but sets tone, offering rhythm and context without closing meaning down.

Objects of Desire brings together an intentionally expansive roster of over 45 national and international artists and designers working across ceramic, stone, metal and textile. Rather than reading as a survey, the exhibition unfolds as a tightly edited ecosystem, where rare lighting, handcrafted furniture and materially ambitious works sit in active dialogue. Anchored by names such as Paola Paronetto, Ek Kalakaar, Shailesh Rajput Studio and Harshita Jhamtani, the presentation prioritises discovery as much as recognition. This is collectible design defined by singularity: one-of-a-kind works that sit between utility and sculpture, resisting easy categorisation. Each piece foregrounds process and material intelligence, offering a clear view of how traditional skills are being recalibrated for contemporary living.

Material expression drives the exhibition’s internal rhythm. Harshita Jhamtani’s ceramic works lean into tactility, their hand-fluted surfaces amplifying irregularity and touch. Length Breadth Height presents furniture shaped from basalt stone and marble, allowing geological weight to dictate form, while Deetee Homes reframes planters as architectural propositions rather than decorative afterthoughts. In the lighting programme, Shailesh Rajput Studio explores shadow as an active participant through sculptural metal fixtures, shown alongside Mugen Home’s alabaster and metal works, which emit a mineral glow that shifts with distance and movement.

Kabbier’s influence is felt most strongly in the exhibition’s atmosphere. His practice spans sound, film and sculpture, and he approaches the gallery as a multi-sensory environment rather than a neutral white cube. “For me the visual experience cannot be complete without the sonic experience,” he says. The gallery becomes a layered composition, where sound shapes movement and duration, and where brand film, spatial pacing and exhibition design operate as a single system. “The gallery concept gives me a chance to put it all together and visualise exactly how the brand will be perceived in all its layers.”

As both artist and creative director, Kabbier brings a firm stance on authorship and integrity. He resists allowing commercial logic to steer creative direction. “What is most critical is to never compromise on the creative process,” he says. “I refuse to let the commercial aspect dictate what direction any form of art is create will take.” That position informs SIKAO’s commitment to singular works over repetition, and to voices that value process over instant legibility.

The collaboration between mother and son introduces its own productive friction. Pinky leads curation and narrative instinct. Kabbier shapes the gallery’s visual, sonic and digital language. They disagree over timelines and degrees of risk, yet the trust is explicit. Each defers to the other’s territory, allowing tension to sharpen rather than dilute the result.

SIKAO’s name provides the exhibition’s philosophical centre. Drawn from the Chinese word for contemplation, it signals the gallery’s intention to slow perception rather than accelerate it. Pinky and Kabbier articulate the position succinctly: “We don’t see objects as mere tools for utility; we see them as vessels of memory and emotion.” Their aim, they say, is to create a space where “a chair or a lamp isn’t just seen, it’s felt.”

In a design landscape driven by speed and surface, SIKAO proposes another pace entirely. One that trusts objects to speak through material, story and atmosphere, and trusts audiences to listen without being rushed toward conclusion.

Exhibition details:

What: Objects of Desire

Where: IFBE, 10-12, Calicut Road, Ballard Estate, Fort, Mumbai.

Exhibition dates: March 7 – 8, 2026.

Public hours: 11 am – 8 pm.

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