This unique exhibition in Mumbai explores how digital world shapes modern life

Untitled, 2024, acrylic on fibreglass

Artist Viraj Khanna has spent his life around art, embroideries and textiles. The 29-year-old's first job was to look after the embroidery department of his family business in Kolkata. Khanna would price different samples and discovered different embroidery techniques up close during this time. Inspired, Khanna, a business administration graduate, is now pursuing a Master's in Fine Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Untitled, 2024, acrylic on fibreglass

Khanna has had several solo and group exhibitions; even acquisitions, since 2021 and uses embroidery techniques and his love for collaging to present visual narratives of his interpretations of the world we live in. Brain Rot: The Life You Live? is a curated series of sculptures and embroidered textile collages by Khanna that continues his satirical exploration of our digitally defined modern lifestyle.

This is a very expensive jacket, 2024, hand embroidery on textile

Brain rot was Oxford's word of 2024, and Khanna quotes Newport Institute to define brain rot as a condition of mental fogginess, lethargy, reduced attention span, and cognitive decline that results from an overabundance of screen time. "This show is very personal. Through this show, I am thinking about how much social media influences us in different ways. My works depict the multiple ways in which I navigate different platforms. I am commenting on the perceptions we create through the images that we share on Instagram. We depict a perfect life in a way, and this is usually far from the truth. Earlier social groups would be smaller and the comparisons would just be within those smaller groups and it wouldn't affect us much. We look at thousands of people together today," comments Khanna. He rues that everyone, including him, knows that the overuse of social media is bad, despite that we use it extensively.

Viraj Khanna works in his studio

"I cannot leave it because it is important for my career, even though it always stresses me out," says Khanna. About his process, Khanna's textile works are usually painted first or collaged at a smaller scale. These images are then enlarged, and Khanna makes a khakha (or an embroidery blueprint) out of it for embroidery. Khanna loves the process of layering and experimenting with embroidery for art and works in collaboration with karigars to bring them to life. The importance of the Indian craftsman-connect comes from his earlier days in his family business, and his mother, acclaimed designer Anamika Khanna.

But it's not just textiles and embroideries for Khanna. Brain Rot includes acrylic on fibreglass sculptures with a recurring outlandish face seen in Khanna's previous works too. This leitmotif, says Khanna, was the first ever design he created, and that's why it's meaningful to him. "These were designed using paper collages created from fashion magazines and other books. My practice began with this sketch, and I have been taking it forward since then. Collaging is quite instinctive by itself and it reflects my aesthetic in a way," reveals Khanna.

Sanjana Shah, creative director of Tao Art Gallery says that Khanna's works are visually vibrant and attractive, but once you spend some time, the deeper concepts trigger introspection in the viewer. "This duality is interesting. While his art asks pertinent questions, there is rarely anything heavy or judgemental about the presentation. This balance makes his art enjoyable and perhaps also educational," says Shah, about the artist who will make his solo debut in the USA this year with an exhibition at Rajiv Menon Contemporary in Los Angeles.

At: Tao Art Gallery, 165, The View, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli.
Till: February 9; 11 am to 7 pm (Monday to Saturday), 12 pm to 6 pm (Sundays)
Call: 24918585