What happens to things marked by time — a memory, a place, or something as ordinary as a chopping board worn down by years of use? At ‘When We Return’, an ongoing exhibition at Khoj Studios mounted in collaboration with Delhi’s Goethe-Institut, such questions are answered through objects that are ridden with marks of time, labour, and loss.
Wooden chopping boards, their surfaces scarred with knife cuts and stained from repeated use, are a part of artist Firi Rahman’s ‘Papan pemotong (cutting board)’. They are engraved with doodles of red onions, capsicums, and dates — elements used in Malay pickles. The work also takes inspiration from Koranic writing boards that the artist used as a child, where text is written and rewritten as part of learning. The artwork signifies that recipes are like language; they are not fixed but transmitted, altered, and carried forward through use.
The exhibition features six curated shows developed by fellows of the Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA) 2025 programme. On view till March 22, it explores how acts of return — to places, histories, and identities — are incomplete, and take influence from distance and memory.
Rahman’s work is part of Sri Lankan curator Thinal Sajeewa’s exhibition ‘as needed’. Sajeewa notes that many members of the Malay community live in close-knit neighbourhoods alongside Sinhalese and Tamils in rapidly changing Colombo, leading to increased linguistic and cultural intermingling. As a result, Malay is no longer consistently spoken within these communities, with newer generations increasingly adopting Sinhala and Tamil. This shift has led to a significant decline in the use of the Malay language, with some individuals losing touch with it entirely.
On ordinary lives
Curator Anna Sireiliu Charenamei’s exhibition, 'A Place Is Made But Do We Get It?' turns its gaze toward Delhi’s Humayunpur, reflecting upon the histories of displacement of North-Eastern communities who moved to the area, particularly in the aftermath of the 2023 Manipur violence between Meitei and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups. “When people from the Northeast first started coming to Delhi, spaces like Humayunpur became important because they felt safer,” she notes. Charenamei further adds that Humayunpur also allows for coexistence between communities, as there is "little space or time for sectarian politics while trying to survive in the city".
Through photographs, films, and drawings, the exhibition captures the everyday lives of its residents. Works by photographers such as Menty Jamir and Bellona Yumnam show Humayunpur in daylight — an intentional departure from its more familiar night-time image, revealing the hum of daily life, and the determination of those who inhabit it.
Complementing these are oil pastel sketches by Felix Chungkham, including one of a displaced woman running a small snack shop, drawn in bright blue tones as she works intently within a cramped kitchen. As a note by the artist, accompanying the sketches reflects: “What happens in all this politics of identity, culture, ideology? What happens when people interact as persons and not just be? What happens when these labels are not merely labels but part of being?”
To be remembered
Other works in the exhibition include the series, ‘UNEARTH: A Play on Material Memory’ curated by Narmeen Sajid exploring material and memory. Speaking about the current works on display, Sajid says, "The exhibition was conceived with the primary curatorial question: How do contemporary South Asian artists use materials in their art practices? What are the narratives associated with materials that they begin with, and how do the artists extend materiality in their art through creative interventions and their own lived experiences."
Among the featured works is Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri’s ‘Alif Laam Meem’, comprising three sculptural forms made of brick and cement. The work draws from the artist’s memories of visiting his maternal grandmother in Faizabad — renamed Ayodhya in 2018 — and reflects a sense of architectural and cultural loss. Jafri calls his works imprints of a “degenerating architecture”; the use of Lakhori brick and cement points to the political turmoils that have influenced the city with the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition as a significant flashpoint. 'UNEARTH' is an ongoing curatorial project that invites artists to collaborate.
A film by Tehran-based artist Hengame Hosseini and her collaborators was also intended to be presented here. The work was based on Shahr-e No, a former red-light district in Tehran that was “erased, renamed, and landscaped.” However, the film remains unfinished due to the sudden escalation of conflict in West Asia. Rather than omitting it altogether, the curatorial decision to leave a space in the exhibition empty acknowledging the interrupted process, providing a moment to recognise the fragility of artistic labour in times of conflict — and to sit with, grieve, and reflect on the ongoing realities of war and violence.
Across ‘When We Return…’, various ordinary objects — a chopping board, a recipe, a brick, a photograph — give a sense of making and remembering. The six exhibitions do not attempt to restore what has been lost; they dwell in the gaps, suggesting that return is never complete. But it can still be remembered.