A Circle of Our Own

Curated by Shaunak Mahbubani
Presented by Gallery Ragini
Sunder Nursery, New Delhi
17 November 2019 – 16 February 2020 (on view from sunrise to sunset)

Presented by Gallery Ragini in the historic setting of Sunder Nursery, A Circle of Our Own marked Kohli’s first large-scale sculptural exhibition in an outdoor heritage environment. Installed around the 16th-century Mughal lotus pond, the exhibition brought together sandstone sculptures, zinc etchings, and major works in wood and bronze.

The show featured a circle of sixty-four Yoginis — first envisioned as etchings on zinc plates and later translated into sandstone in collaboration with master stone carvers near Hirapur, Odisha. Drawing from her meditative engagement with ancient Yogini temples of Central and Eastern India, Kohli reimagined the pluralistic legacy of these roofless, circular shrines in a contemporary context. The installation responded architecturally to the octagonal axes embedded in Mughal design, allowing the sculptures to remain open to the sky — echoing the sacred spatial logic of the original Yogini temples.

Alongside the Yogini circle, the exhibition included five major sculptures in wood and bronze, further articulating Kohli’s long-standing exploration of the divine feminine as a force that binds the spiritual and the natural worlds. In the towering wooden sculpture Kali, carved from gambhari wood, she presented a female interpretation of Krishna standing upon the golden womb, with Kali residing in her heart — an embodiment of balance between ferocity and compassion, creation and dissolution.

The opening evening featured a live narrative performance titled A Circle of Our Own: Fragment of the Whole, presented at the Garden Amphitheatre and accompanied by new video works. The performance extended the sculptural installation into sound, movement, poetry, and projection, reinforcing the exhibition’s central theme of interconnectedness.

Developed over several years of research and spiritual inquiry, the exhibition reflected Kohli’s sustained engagement with Indic mythologies, ecological consciousness, and collective memory. The convergence of Yogini traditions, Mughal architectural heritage, and a contemporary urban park created a layered dialogue across histories and belief systems.

Set within the verdant landscape of Sunder Nursery — adjacent to Humayun’s Tomb — the exhibition reactivated the site as a space of feminine sacred presence, community, and care. Through sculpture, installation, and performance, A Circle of Our Own articulated Kohli’s vision of the divine feminine not as a solitary icon, but as a living, communal force.