Two large cut-out painted figures of women facing each other across a grey panel of pressed leaves and dried grass — one in a blue blouse and white headscarf, one in a red-patterned sari.

Staged Narratives

Two artists present distinct approaches to storytelling: Aswathy G S critiques domestic labour through terracotta, while Imran Ahamed paints dreamlike tableaux between memory and imagination.

Published 31 December 2025

This has finished

On view
12 December 2025 – 31 March 2026
Times
10AM to 6PM (Mon to Sunday) Till March 31st, 2026
Part of
Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26

Where

BMS Warehouse

Event venue · Bazaar Road, Mattancherry

What if the home was never a space of freedom, but of boundedness and unseen labour? What if memory and imagination could share the same canvas?

Artists

Aswathy G S (Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts, Mavelikkara, Kerala), M Imran Ahamed (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai)

Medium

Mixed mediums including Cement, Glazed Terracotta and acrylic; Mixed mediums on canvas

Exhibition view of 'Staged Narratives' at BMS Warehouse, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26.
'Staged Narratives' at BMS Warehouse — a Bazaar Road trading warehouse turned Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26 venue.

About

Staged Narratives presents two distinct approaches to constructed storytelling through visual art.

Aswathy G S draws from the fleeting memories of women observed in her surroundings. In her work rendered in cement and glazed terracotta, she connects the repetitive, Sisyphean nature of domestic labour with the framed depictions of women in traditional miniature paintings. She critiques the idealized patriarchal narrative of the home as a space of freedom, highlighting instead the boundedness and unseen labour within.

M Imran Ahamed employs painting as his primary narrative medium. He blends real and unreal situations, creating poetic, dreamlike tableaux. His work is characterized by a delicate play of shadow and a deep, affective engagement with painterly technique, constructing stories that live in the ambiguous space between memory and imagination.

Two artists. Two approaches. Both asking how we construct the stories we tell about ourselves.

Exhibition view of 'Staged Narratives' at BMS Warehouse, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26.
'Staged Narratives' at BMS Warehouse — a Bazaar Road trading warehouse turned Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26 venue.