Exhibition statement
Khorlo, the Tibetan word for “wheel” evokes cyclical movement—an endless turning where
beginnings and endings dissolve into continuity. The wheel also suggests
interdependence: a structure in which each element exists in relation to others. In this
sense, Khorlo becomes both a philosophical symbol and a poetic metaphor for the
shifting nature ofidentity.
Bringing together four Tibetan diaspora artists from India—two women and two men—this
exhibition explores how individual practices engage with questions of selfhood within the
complexities of contemporary life. While each artist works through a distinct visual
language, they share a common inquiry: how do we understand who we are while
carrying inherited histories, beliefs, and cultural memory into the present?
Some artists reflect on religious philosophy inherited through family and community,
reconsidered through lived experience. Others turn to personal memory, transforming
everyday stories through sewing, embroidery, and paint. In contrast, abstraction becomes
a space to trace connections between past and present selves, while another practice
explores the unseen inner life, where identity appears fluid, carried, and unresolved.
Rather than presenting a fixed definition of identity, the works in Khorlo reveal identity as
fluid, relational, and continually unfolding. Each artist approaches this inquiry from a
different direction—questioning, remembering, or reimagining—yet their practices remain
connected through a shared orbit ofreflection.
Like a wheel in motion, identity never settles into a final form; it turns through memory,
experience, and encounter, endlessly reshaping the space between past inheritance and
the unfolding present.
Curator,
Tenzin Gyurmey
