Artist Purvai Rai is mapping Sikh cosmology onto the agricultural land and domestic courtyards of Punjab, India, through her solo exhibition Cartography of the Grounded Sky at Gladwell Projects inside the Arts & Powerhouse Building in Jersey City, USA, according to the source articles.
Materials as Fragments of the Landscape
Rai uses earthly matter such as compressed rice husks, wood, kiln carbon, wool, and hand-woven cotton thread alongside traditional religious mediums like oil paint, gold leaf, and silver leaf, according to the source articles. Rather than bringing nature indoors, the artist stated that she aims to reveal existing relationships between architecture, agriculture, and labor. These materials act as fragments of the landscape carrying their own material intelligence rather than mere symbols, according to the artist.
Threshold Architecture and Community Labor
Visitors enter the exhibition through a scaled fabric recreation of a haveli gate, referencing the grand main entrances of traditional Indian manor houses, as detailed in the source articles. Rai noted that architecture taught her meaning resides in thresholds, referencing how her family’s haveli in Punjab opened its doors to volunteers and displaced villagers during the 2025 floods. This architectural element reflects Sikh thought by defining structures through public utility and community shelter rather than enclosure, according to the artist’s statements.
Carbon Cycles and the Geometry of Yield
Works from the Geometry of Yield (2026) series use elemental carbon as a leitmotif to connect the atmosphere, soil, smoke, ash, microbes, harvested grain, and the human body, according to the source articles. Rai uses gradients created with rice husk and pigments to trace carbon from air to soil, crops, human consumption, and finally to remnants of destruction like ash and smoke from post-harvest stubble-burning fields. According to the artist, this imagery highlights the multiplicity of carbon as both a toxic and life-giving element intertwined with human existence.
Mapping Overlapping Geographies
The exhibition features small, square projections on plain canvases and sculptural works in the Soil Composition (2026) series that mimic aerial views of agricultural fields and irrigation grids, as outlined in the source articles. Rai explained that she rejects traditional cartography which flattens landscapes into measurable boundaries and infrastructure. Instead, her maps record overlapping geographies where a single plot of ground functions simultaneously as an agricultural field, a geological body, a watershed, a memory of the Partition, a site of labor, and a home.
Sacred Gold and Atmospheric Graphite
Canvases in the Turning Gold (2026) and Untitled (2026) series juxtapose breathy graphite and silver leaf backgrounds with the brilliant sheen of gold leaf, according to the source articles. Works like Turning Gold 4 and Turning Gold 5 stack canvases into architectural forms to study value and the transformation of the familiar into the sacred. Rai stated to STIR that she encounters spirituality through relationships with the soil, shared food, and built homes, defining spirituality as a practice of attention and care rather than an otherworldly pursuit.
Collaborative Textile Art and Daily Rituals
The exhibition also highlights collaborative fabric works from the One Harvest Season (2026) series, featuring cotton threads knotted onto crocheted ropes by Delhi-based artist Rai alongside women artisans Rohini Kaur, Rajni Bala, Rajwant Kaur, Geeta Sing, and Manpreet Kaur from Nawanpind, Punjab, according to the source articles. These hand-tied fibers record touch, duration, and generational knowledge from the domestic sphere where food transforms into meals. Through Cartography of the Grounded Sky, Rai stages tactile encounters demonstrating that the divine, much like carbon, is everywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Purvai Rai’s exhibition located?
What materials does Purvai Rai use in her art?
According to the source articles, Rai incorporates earthly materials like compressed rice husks, wood, kiln carbon, soil, wool, and textiles alongside oil paint, gold leaf, and silver leaf.
What themes are explored in Cartography of the Grounded Sky?
The exhibition explores Sikh cosmology, agricultural labor, carbon lifecycles, Punjabi architecture, and the convergence of the sacred and the material world, according to the source articles.
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