4 minutes of readingBombayJanuary 18, 2026 22:35 IST
A tapestry project charting the streets of their neighborhood (some real, some aspirational), such as their schools, hospitals, food joints, garbage and roads, made by five women from Govandi, has been chosen to be exhibited at the Kochi Muziris Biennale, the longest-running contemporary Indian art exhibition in Kerala.
The project was part of the recently concluded Govandi Arts Festival and was selected along with three photographic works by young people from the area in the Student Biennial section.
Titled Har Gully, Ek Gaon, the textile art project began as an exercise to map the routes women took from their homes to a local community space called Awaz. It ended up becoming a colorful visual record of the shared history of the area, what exists and what they wish existed.
For example, Samira Khan, 38, said she began working with textiles as part of helping to support the household after her father died when she was young.
“It was work, but I enjoyed sewing, designing and working with zardozi thread. For the project, there were initially 20 to 25 women and we were told to draw what we see in our neighborhood. If someone explained our area if they had never been here, what would we show them?” Khan said.
He added, “Then we started drawing our neighborhood shops, vegetable stalls, schools and clinics. But along the way, we also started thinking about what we wish were present in the area, like good roads, a good hospital, open spaces and we also mapped them with our threads and embroidery.”
Finally, as the other women could not continue, Khan along with Afsana Shaikh, Ruksana Qureshi, Rubina Shaikh and Shaheen Shaikh.
Story continues below this ad.
Some of them became involved while dropping off their children in the Arts initiative. Ruksana, 45, said her daughter was participating in a creative arts program and the textile project at the community center piqued her curiosity.
“I had been working with needles for a few years and even made an Instagram page to show my work, but this seemed special to me as it involved collaborating with other women and collectively showing what our neighborhood is like. We wanted to show the good and the not so good. We are very happy that it was selected and displayed in another city for many others to see,” she said.
The women worked on the project twice a week for two months, each undertaking the work in separate pieces patched together to make the complete art installation with the supervision of resident artist, Koshy Brahmatmaj. Some even said they took the pieces home to complete it while doing their daily work.
Initially it was displayed alongside other installations, murals, exhibitions, exploring themes of the area such as food traditions, sports and art showing comparisons with village life.
Story continues below this ad.
The second edition of the Govandi Arts Festival was held at the Natwar Parekh complex in Govandi in December 2025, as a community-led initiative, involving local residents who were content creators such as rappers, theater and performance artists, short film makers and photographers.
“The area has a history of people resettling here after displacement due to various projects. The Arts Festival held first in 2023, and now in 2025, aims to make people here have the space to express themselves and in the way they want, not as passive participants,” said Govandi Arts Festival co-founder and curator Natasha Sharma.
