My first in-person residency programme was at the Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi in 2023. Its legacy was something I was made aware of before I applied to the Curatorial Intensive South Asia fellowship. With India becoming more pronounced in the art world of South Asia, being a resident of the programme as a Sri Lankan was significant for me. It encouraged experimentation, which during the past few years of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, the country could not afford  The mentors, curator Latika Gupta and artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta, told the cohort that the programme said ‘Yes’ to everything we wanted to do, within budget, while in our curatorial careers there would be multiple challenges that would directly or indirectly tell us ‘No’.

This conversation guided my journey as an arts professional, and artists who have been part of the Khoj Peers programme are likely to have experienced the same. When the Peers programme completed 20 years in 2025, Khoj’s director Pooja Sood, with her team, designed and developed the fundraiser exhibition Peers Continuum: A Relay of Reciprocity with a nostalgia for the effect it has had on over 100 young artists throughout the two decades. In Sood’s words, Peers is a residency programme that encourages early career artists to develop a research-based practice in “a place of sharing, mentoring and peer-to-peer learning”.

The exhibition showed works by over 60 Peers alumni who were asked to “speculate on the future of the spaces we inhabit—imagining landscapes that blend mythical with mechanical and biotic with human and non-human”. These artists have evolved and so have their creative pursuits, and through the acts of responding to the future, they were reciprocating and taking stock of their evolution since their time at Peers. The exhibition embraced a multiplicity of perspectives and interpretations of ‘reciprocity’–artists exchanging ideas not only with one another but also with themselves, with Khoj and its team and audiences in the neighbourhood in Khirki (where Khoj is based) and beyond. By imagining a future landscape, how could they express gratitude?

With over 70 donated artworks, the exhibition almost took over all the space of the Khoj building. In this act of reciprocity, the artists had returned to the values the Peers programme had instilled. Experimentation was the strongest among them, exemplified by the variety of ways in which each artist explored the notion of a futuristic landscape: looking at ethnic and religious cohesion, the coexistence of the digital and the human and a nostalgia for their respective roots across India. Bhuvanesh Gowda’s Master Mountain V (2021) made on a tall and upright branch of salvaged wood stood out with his careful treatment of the wood as well as the visual language of natural carvings combined with pastel-coloured triangular shapes that captured his travels to the Himalayas and other destinations. Digbijayee Khatua’s set of 5 watercolours and 3D handcut paperworks, Through the Eyes of the City I-V (2024), depicts the rapid urban transformation of Delhi and its impact on families in apartments and gated colonies. The 3D handcut elements of doors, windows and interiors with the presence of lives inside apartments remind one of the multitudes of stories urban households contain. On the other hand, Jayeeta Chatterjee gives us a glimpse into what is inside a traditional household from her rural homeland in West Bengal. Jibon Ghore o Baire 8 (life at home and outside) (2024) shows women in comfort, embedded in their daily chores.

Experiments continued across mediums and techniques: Mothe Mahesh’s signification (2024) was presented as a kinetic sculpture made of typewriter keys, solenoids, circuit board and wood. As one walked through the gallery, the sonic experience of the typewriter keys enveloped the visitor with a repetition that piqued curiosity. Hora (2024) by Pahul Singh represented a sound wave associated with clapping through the materialities of enamel paint on MDF and inkjet prints on Kozo paper. The shape of the MDF contains the sound effects and its softness while the indigo visuals of two hands in motion capture their movement. In Sensation Samplers V (2015) by Rakhi Peswani, placed next to Singh’s work, two hands extend towards the centre, attempting a moment of contact. The work is made up of hand-embroidered handloom fabric, various tools and accessories – and mounted on a light box. The bright red illumination amplified a multisensory experience combining backlighting technology and traditional media.

While these works are executed in a range of mediums and various statures of experimentation, speaking about the future and of reciprocity, the exhibition gives prominence to the care that Khoj has extended to its Peers residents and several generations of arts professionals. Each person involved brought in novel thoughts, interpretations and ideas, which made me dwell more on the idea of reciprocity that underpins Khoj’s activities. As a non-profit arts organisation, Khoj provides education, training and community to its beneficiaries. It extends even beyond the artists, writers, team members and residents who have been part of their programmes. It extends to the young volunteers at Khoj, who may pursue careers within or outside the art industry. Yet, they all embrace art for its conceptual power, rigour, labour and aesthetics.