Long before museums, archives or written histories documented the lives of women in Punjab, their stories were patiently sewn into the fabric. Phulkari, literally ‘flower work’, emerged not as an ornament but as heritage: a language of colour, repetition and labor through which women marked birth, marriage, faith, everyday life and loss. Often made indoors for years, these embroideries were never meant for display. They were folded into trunks, wrapped around the body, exchanged at the threshold of life, and carried across generations – and ultimately, across borders.
At Latitude 28 in Delhi’s Defense Colony, Sut Te Sah: Stories Weaved in Phulkari brings forth this intimate world without stripping it of its emotional density. Presented by Bhavana Kakkar, Founder-Director, Latitude 28, and curated by Shreya Sharma, the exhibition brings together over 40 rare pre-Partition Phulkaris and Bagas from Punjab, revealing how women sewed memory, ritual and lived experience into the fabric of a time when their voices were rarely recorded in formal history.
Drawn from the personal and family collections of Brigadiers Surinder and Shyama Kakkar and designer Amit Hansraj, the exhibition is one of the first major presentations of phulkaris and gardens in a private gallery in India. “This exhibition allows us to draw attention from peripheral crafts to central crafts and establish Phulkari as a complex form of knowledge produced by women,” says Bhavana. “These pieces, including pieces passed down to my mother from my great-great-grandmother, are embedded in living histories of kinship, migration, and resilience.”
marking life’s thresholds
The exhibition is spread over three interconnected sections: SAnkraman (transition), Vishwas ate Katha (faith and narrative) and Rihaish (residence and everyday life). “Certain motifs mark a threshold into life,” explains Shreya.
In transition, Phulkari emerges as a bearer of blessings, protection and continuity. Chop Phulkari, traditionally embroidered by grandmothers and gifted to brides, keeps the softness of the beginning. Wari-da-bagh shines with auspicious motifs that bind families and communities. The dense, shiny bags are spread out like fields of color, reflecting collective labor. Thirma, with its restrained white ground, carries associations of purity and a serene way of life.
Vishwas Ete Katha brings together faith, folklore and oral memory. Rich in figurative scenes, Sainchi Phulkaris depict village life in all its rhythm – agricultural labour, domestic routine, moments of humor and heroism. The final section, Dwellings, turns inward toward everyday life. Here, Phulkari appears not as a show but as a presence – folded in the trunk, brought out at special moments, quietly shaping the world of women for generations.
“For us at Latitude 28, material culture has always been a living archive,” says Bhavana. “As the conversation around textile traditions increasingly boils down to decoration or nostalgia, it was important to reclaim Phulkari as a rigorous visual and cultural language.”
post-partition memory
The division runs through the exhibition without any spectacle. Many of the works were created before 1947, but survived afterwards – transported across borders, homes and identities. “Partition is not seen as a distant background,” says Shreya. “It reshaped the lives that exist within these textiles. Rather than isolating it as a moment of loss, the exhibition focuses on how ruptures play out in everyday life.”
That sense of continuity is embodied in the voice of Bhavana’s grandmother, Ram Kumari Kakkar, some of whose phulkaris were later inherited by her daughter-in-law, Shyama. “These phulkaris were not made by a single pair of hands,” recalls Ram Kumari. “My sisters, sisters-in-law and I worked on them together under the supervision of my mother – she was the most talented among us. Each woman had her own skills, the cloth passed from one hand to another without any trace, only precise calculations.”
She also recalls the material routes that fostered this domestic practice: pat silk coming with the Pathans from Peshawar, which was worth “equal to its weight in silver”.
Collectors Rahul Sharma and Shreya, who are fans of the exhibition, talk about being the first to see phulkaris as living heritage rather than collectible artefacts. He says, “We were drawn to them through an exhibition in Philadelphia, where we understood them as family objects made for personal use rather than commerce.” One of the most meaningful pieces, Rahul recalls, is a simple antique phulkari that his mother made his wife wear during their Roka ceremony. “Its value lies not in the complexity of the design, but in the emotional context in which it was used.”
Along with clothes, bidsVerbal fragments and personal references are woven through the space, recreating the social and emotional world in which Phulkari was made and used. Rather than turning household objects into spectacle, Sut Te Sah extends memory and belonging from the home to the gallery.
The exhibition will run till January 26, Monday to Sunday, 11 AM to 7 PM at Latitude 28, B-74, Ground Floor, Block B, Defense Colony, New Delhi.
published – January 27, 2026 02:06 PM IST