Nidhi Khurana, 32, Artist
Artist Nidhi Khurana maps Delhi. She is the cultural cartographer of India’s capital who engraves her journeys through the life and lanes of Delhi in cloth and paper sculptures. Her body of work includes murals on Delhi’s cityscape and maps created on tiles, cloth with embroidery. She feels the texture of the city’s structured chaos and scattered boundaries with her fingers and eyes.
Nidhi went to school in Dehradun, graduated from Baroda School of Art and shifted to Delhi to pursue her Master’s. “I came to live here in 2007. I hated it in the beginning.” Art helped her in the discovery of Delhi. “In 2010, during the Religare art residency held in CP I realised that I was unable to leave the city. Where would I find such a vibrant atmosphere?”
She adds, “When we were thinking of living in Delhi, we were told by a seer that we would live near the Qutab Minar. Of course, we believed none of that. We started living her after shifting five houses. On our first morning here, we woke and what do we see? Qutab Minar. But now, with so many buildings being constructed around it, we have lost the view.”
The city changes every day, believes Nidhi. “It changed before and after CWG. The Metro has transformed it completely and also how we think of getting around.”
“I love the weekly markets that spring up in different parts of the city. I love going to the one that comes up behind Select City Walk mall once a week. What fascinates me is that on other days, it is just another road, but on Monday, it becomes another world.”
Nidhi and husband Ruchin Soni, also an artist, spend much time travelling in and around Delhi, taking up projects related to education through art, thereby creating a healthy distance from routine. Though art residencies and travels across the country give her a wider view, leaving Delhi leaves a void. “I want to spend more time here. There is so much to do and explore. I like exploring the heritage sites in Hauz Khas. I visited Farrukhnagar with a group of friends in December and explored a Mughal bastion on Sohna Road. The heritage sites associated with the 1857 are fascinating,” she says. She loves going to Lotus Pond, a Chinese restaurant in New Friends Colony. “I have visited it since I was in school.”
Nidhi and Ruchin work at a joint studio at home. In Delhi art fairs, Nidhi has seen the comfort of buyers directly walking up to the artists for enquiries. However, there is something she displikes about the city. She says, “There is a trend among people in Delhi trend be fashionably late. I hate this habit but have been able to understand this phenomenon and reconcile myself.”
Working on cloth helps her store the art works. She folds them over, and preserves the memories without using much space. The works change, keeping pace with the transforming city and its changing picture
Quirky idea you are working on?
A cloth book on a picnic to Farrukhnagar
Your husband and you are working on a project on nudes. Is Delhi ready to appreciate nudes?
Not yet
Places you went to for art projects: Mexico and Auroville. Next stop, Leh