Project uses snail mail to forge links

As many as 15 women artists have come together to exchange art and ideas

When distance posed a challenge for us to meet physically, we decided to interact and express via art to close that gap,” says Advithi Emmi, curator of the ‘Homelabour Collective’. Dhanya Rajaram is co-curator of the exhibition.

What began as a way for three friends to stay connected has grown into a 10-month project, running from April 2025, involving 15 artists, 99 mails by post and 198 exchanges. The participants — all women — include writers, educators, an anthropologist and an art historian, who contributed alongside their professional commitments. The idea was to avoid adding pressure to their routines, encouraging them instead to spend a few minutes engaging with art. Participants could pause, leave or rejoin the project at any point.

The project evolved through snail mail. Artists sent prompts, ideas, artworks or materials to assigned partners across India and in countries including Japan, Egypt, Latvia, Germany, Switzerland and Poland through the post. Each exchange invited further development by the receiving artist, resulting in diverse works. “One artist even mailed another a plant, and I sent seeds,” says Advithi. Every month, artists worked in pairs: one initiating with an idea, a partial drawing or materials, and the other completing it. “There was room for artists to send anything they wanted, often reflecting what their lives were at the time,” says Dhanya.

Alongside the exchanges, the curators engaged in ongoing discussions around authorship, ownership and credit — questioning whether an artwork belongs more to its concept or its execution. These questions inform the works to be presented at the Venkatappa Art Gallery from June 5 to 11, where both the conceptualiser and creator are acknowledged.

An exhibition at 1Shanthiroad gallery held on April 26 displayed 80 envelopes carrying these exchanges, tracing how ideas travelled across geographies.