The significance of water overrides its utilitarian aspect in everyday life to command a symbolic and visceral ethos seeped in cultural, religious, spiritual, creative and diurnal connotations. Water quenches thirst. It rains and sustains. Water births and it nourishes. It also obliterates. It baptises, ablutes, cleanses and purifies. It is intuitive, instructive and inspiring. Water’s multidimensionality, while universal, can be explored more intensely as one begins to examine its local connections and symbolism regionally. This exploration of the dynamic and often intangible nature of water with respect to Indian cultures, traditions and beliefs forms the core of an ongoing exhibition at Arthshila's sprawling space in New Delhi, India. Titled Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative, the multidisciplinary craft exhibition will remain on view between February 1 and April 27, 2025.

Presented in collaboration with the JSW Foundation, the arts and design exhibition is split across three sections, inviting audiences to "uncover the unseen, celebrating the fluid thread that connects India’s past, present and future". The exhibits are curated by Anjana Somany, with scenography by Aparna Nambiar and Abhhay Narkar of Vertex Inc.

The multisensory exposition at Arthshila Delhi delves further into water’s cultural, spiritual and creative influences in India. The interactive installations narrate and reference the country’s deep ties to water, both as a precious resource and a divine vessel. With tactile and tech-aided installations, audio explorations and luminary showcases, the experience at the gallery weaves together history, culture and craft.

“Water is depicted as a flowing force that holds not just life, but creativity and spirituality in metamorphosis. The exhibition offers an insight into how water has shaped everything from sacred rites to artistic expressions in Indian life and retains relevance in the modern world,” an official release further elaborates.

Split across three galleries located on three different levels of the space, Flowing Heritage can be accessed via a common staircase that requires visitors to exit each level to move on to the next one in order to fully absorb the experience of the exhibition. The first gallery features Baoli — A Performative Experience, dedicated to the baolis or stepwells of India—vernacular water storage and channeling systems remarkable for their stepped architecture and incorporating local motifs—showcasing the historical significance of these now archaic cisterns. With an abstractly construed installation exemplifying the form of the traditional baoli and reflective walls casting an illusory effect of endless steps in the well, this zone in the gallery informs visitors on the structures' historic relevance in sustaining civilisations in various arid regions within the Indian subcontinent. This performative experience space is conceptualised by Rhea Susan John, with guidance from architect Yatin Pandya and scenography by Aparna Nambiar and Abhhay Narkar. In an attempt to holistically engage various senses, John has inserted an engaging film by Pandya within the space.

Further, various pots emitting an earthen fragrance lie strewn across the expanse. “The iconic pot symbolises renewal, bridging the earthly and the divine, and reflecting water’s role in shaping material and spiritual practices,” the exhibition text elaborates. To further enhance this experience in a conscientious manner, visitors are encouraged to list down memories that the smell reminds them of. Granting a seemingly evolved element to the exposition, this insert within the gallery augments the showcase with a series of deeply personal and anecdotal retellings about the land and water. Additionally, Gallery 1 also features geometric stone murals by Indian designer and artist Rutva Joshi that capture the rhythmic patterns of stepped water bodies from above.

On the second level, entitled Kalash — Fertility and Procreation, works by Naman P Ahuja, Bandeep Singh and Made in Earth Collective dot the gallery. Underscoring the connection between water and creation, showcases in this zone explore themes such as fertility, growth and sustainability. Beeja: A travelling seed pod in Raw Earth by Bengaluru-based Made in Earth Collective is a clay and bamboo spatial installation that visitors can enter and sit within. Meanwhile, the use of loose red soil from Kemmannu, a village in Karnataka, around the structure and on the floor, infuses it with the symbolism of fertility and life.

Made in Earth Collective’s Body Ornaments, on the other hand, are wearable designs that were initially launched during Milan Design Week 2024. Made using loofah, lantana, sisal, water hyacinth, coconut leather, Areca sheath and paper mache—all of them materials emerging from six different landscapes in southern India—the wearable sculptures exemplify the disparate ways in which different lands, irrigated by the same resource, yield novel outputs. Meanwhile, showcases by Ahuja and Singh, entitled Lajja Gauri: An Iconological Study and Lajja Gauri: The Antarghar Series, respectively, emphasise the connection between water and creation via a reiteration of the ancient Hindu deity of the same name.

The third level at Arthshila Delhi, perhaps the most expansively construed, is curated under the head Aakhyan – Painted Mobile Narratives. Addressing the visceral, symbolic and mythical essence of water, showcases in this arena reflect on folktales that narrate the significance of water in birthing and sustaining civilisations. It explores various mobile narrative traditions such as the Santhal Scrolls, Cherial Scrolls, Phad of Pabuji and the Kaavad, all centred around water. “Woven throughout India’s cultural texture, these painted stories carry knowledge and narrative. The use of modern technology in the gallery reinterprets those traditions, and further emphasises water as a cultural element that continues to inspire art,” reads an excerpt from the press release.

Pabuji ki Phad or Phad of Pabuji features an artwork by Phad artist Vijay Joshi on e-textile construed by Chhail Khalsa’s Anuvad Innovation Studio. Conceptualised by Rhea John, the dynamic installation is further appended by a narration of Abbas Qamar’s script by Fouzia Dastango and Ritesh Yadav, along with some Ravanahatha music by Rupayan Sansthan. Meanwhile, Chandrakant Chitara’s Mata ni Pachedi serves as a literal output of expansive craftsmanship undertaken by artisans using water.

The narrative of water’s universal significance is further enounced with Kaavad: An Ajrakh Library, designed by Harsh Verma, with concepts and design guides by Mango Tree Craft & Design, under the guidance of Nina Sabnani, Aurangazeb Khatri and Irfan Anwar Khatri. It hosts swatches by Dr Ismail Khatri, artworks by Debu Payen and Mohan Prajapat and fabrications by Ritikesh Kashyap, all made in ajrakh, a traditional Indian hand-block printing technique that utilises a generous amount of water. The display is further accompanied by textual sketches by Judy Frater and narration by Anjana Somany. Kaavad: An Ajrakh Library serves as a movable theatre that narrates the importance of water via graphic and textual tales, as well as the showcase of textiles and objects that utilise water as a major component. “Portable storytelling traditions trace water’s impact on human expression through painted narratives, bringing to life its role in shaping ideas, creativity and knowledge across time,” the press release states.

Some other narrative-based features in this zone include Echoes of the Sacred Path by artist Amrita Sudan Saha and the Cheriyal Sculpture by Shama Pawar in collaboration with Cheriyal artists Dhanalakota Rakesh and Dhanalakota Vinay, Kinhal artist Santoshkumar Chitragar and fabrication artisans of Kishkinda Trust.

Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative is also accompanied by various collateral events designed to complement the exhibition and explore particular aspects of the dialogue surrounding water and related issues that touch our urban and rural landscapes. Some of these include the Nomad Film Festival 2025, earmarking the showcase of films such as Split Wide Open by Dev Benegal, Water Wars by Abhijit Banerjee and Sarnath Banerjee and Titas Ekti Nodir Naam by Ritwik Ghatak; workshops such as ‘Paint your own Kaavad’ by Satyanarayan Suthar, ‘Make your own Kaavad book’ by Nina Sabnani; Ajrakh workshops by Aurangzeb Khatri; Claudio Cambon’s talk To Reach the Source: The Stepwells of India and a dastangoi by Syed Sahil Agha, among other activations.

With a wide variety of showcases that combine oral traditions and folklore, Indian craftsmanship and contemporary techniques, the exhibition captures the sustained and evolving zeitgeist of water as a resource, muse and teacher, all at the same time. It further shines a light on the ways in which water shapes "the hard and soft infrastructure of culture", with examples ranging from architectural and material outputs to folklore, survival and spirituality.

‘Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative’ runs from February 1 – April 27, 2025, at Arthshila Delhi, New Delhi, India.