TAKING BACK THE INDIGO

BLUE is Radhika Surana’s favourite colour. Walking into her solo debut exhibition ‘Somewhere I Have Never Travelled’ at Delhi’s Art Alive Gallery feels like stepping into that love—the space is awash in indigo.

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

The title borrows from E. E. Cummings’ poem of the same name, a reflection on love, vulnerability, and the unknown. For the Gurugram artist, the show is a journey through her own idea of life, gesturing toward inner exploration—through thread and indigo-dyed works. “The poem is about relationships, which is what my work speaks to as well,” she tells TMS.

It also becomes a space to explore places she hasn’t yet travelled to with needle and paper. “My art process is spontaneous and unplanned. I don’t plan to start working. I just pick up the thread, and it starts travelling. I don’t know where it’s going, and that becomes the first step,” says Surana.

Threads tell a tale

Surana’s art practice combines indigo vat dyeing on paper with embroidery, stitched fabric, and sometimes watercolour. She frequently uses seed stitches. “It represents growth and new life. It’s meditative, but also holds narrative,” she says.