The past has a home in the future: Curated by Dr. Annapurna Garimella

After Independence, a zeal to create a new Indian identity and economy emerged and arts and design too became sites for making one. Fresh methods and media began to be explored; simultaneously, recent refugees of the Partition began to make New Delhi their new home, carrying memories of their recent past to start afresh. New India's Art, Design and Architecture, is subdivided into Line, Shape, Movement and Community, each theme emphasising important visual and spatial elements and social relationships between artists and institutions, all of which shaped Dhoomimal Gallery and the visual, performing and built arts in Connaught Place.

Shape focuses on objects and artworks that play with dimension, volume and geometry, as well as the imagery of Connaught Place. Inspired by designer Riten Mozumdar's geometric and graphic prints that he created at Connaught Place, the textile designer Rema Kumar - through newly-woven sarees and stoles-reinterprets his lines and shapes. Shape also presents designs, objects and techniques which are engaging with the creation of a modern local, such as the Auroville-based ceramist Puneet Brar's blue tableware which engages the Delhi Blue glaze and ceramics that pioneer studio potter Gurcharan Singh designed and made.

This section celebrates the artistic bonds that visual artists and designers made amongst themselves with people in Connaught Place. It recalls the cherished moments at the Gallery where artists found lasting friendship. Anwar Chitrakar's 'CP se Prem Se' is a painted visual reconstruction of Connaught Place as an evolving physical, social and urban space. Community also discusses the impact of the Partition and the wars with China and Pakistan, by showcasing illustrations by Veda Raheja based on
Aanchal Malhotra's book, Remnants of a Separation, and the artist KP Reji's visual stories taken from JCB Prize for Literature awardee M Mukundan's Delhi: A Soliloquy.

Still: 1984 to the Present highlights the post-Emergency and liberalisation eras and transformations in art, ideology and design. Artists continued to explore new media and methods of art, adopting abstraction and surrealism. This section presents a unique reflection of the ubiquitous and ever-evolving tehbazari, or street vending, in Connaught Place through a modular corner shop for the arts created especially for the show by the design firm Chaal Chaal Agency. Still questions the notion of time and space, chaos and harmony, through the soundscape produced by the artist Anandit Sachdev, which is played throughout the show.