Exhibition: ‘Ski(e)n —Re-membering through performance and thread’

Dhoomimal Gallery — one of India’s oldest modern art spaces — presents Ski(e)n: Re-membering through Performance and Thread, an exhibition that brings together Royal College of Art alumni Abhijna Vemuru Kasa and Insha Manzoor. Opening on December 5 with a preview, and on view to the public from December 6 to January 10, the show explores how the body, memory, craft, and performance intersect across time and geography.

Curated by Jyoti A Kathpalia, the exhibition weaves together two distinct yet resonant practices. Abhijna, based between Hyderabad and San Francisco, interrogates restrictive traditions surrounding femininity, reimagining local myths to assert an authentic feminine subjectivity. Her works, often referencing the post-partum body, challenge the boundaries imposed on women’s lived experiences.

Insha, hailing from Kashmir, turns to weaving, embroidery, and intergenerational craft as vessels of memory and resilience. In her hands, thread becomes a metaphor — a stabilising force in worlds marked by instability and geopolitics.

“Ski(e)n is about negotiating the self,” says curator Jyoti Kathpalia. “Both artists use the body as a site of encounter — where craft, memory, and cultural motifs can be re-inscribed.”

The exhibition incorporates oils, acrylics, wool, thread, fabric, installations, performance art, and screen-based works. Performance and digital documentation become key sites where skin and skein — body and thread — are transformed into carriers of memory and new imaginaries.

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“New perspectives and new ventures drive creativity,” notes Sunaina Jain of Dhoomimal Gallery, while director Uday Jain adds, “Both artists have an international outlook while remaining deeply rooted in their cultures.”

When: December 6– January 10

Where: Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi