The contemplative world of Omani artist Haneen Almoosawi can be seen and felt at Pristine Contemporary art gallery in Delhi

The city is drenched in rains but Omani artist Haneen Almoosawi brought in a whiff of the calm of still desert to Delhi. The Wondering & Wandering Mind, on display at Pristine Contemporary, presents a collection of Almoosawi’s latest works, on the crossroads of memory, materiality and minimalism. 

The exhibition is the emerging artist’s first solo exhibition, and borrows from experiences deeply personal to her. Being diagnosed with scoliosis, the art and design influences of both her parents, and the tether to her Omani heritage, are all abstractions that find a visual platform in the show.

“As a teenager, I often felt disconnected from the physical world and found solace in the internal—what can’t be seen, but is deeply felt. That sense of distance, and the quiet search to bridge it, remains central to my work,” says Almoosawi. 

Using embroidery and lighting as her techniques to create an abstract language can be traced across her works, Almoosawi says, the materials she uses vary between digital and traditional. “I wanted to combine new technology with old techniques like stitching,” she adds.

Threads of varying colours and lengths are judiciously sewn into linen, punctuating the fabric with pathways that conceal as much as they reveal. Submerged in resin, the piece is then suspended in light boxes, emanating a constellation that reflects the many circuits of the mind. “I always felt like I needed something bigger than my body, so I used to pray and meditate. So there’s a light from up there, a guidance that you can see recurring in my work,” says Almoosawi, on the way she curates light in her work.

Almoosawi’s work is pierced with an element of the personal, but she does not view this as a hindrance to the great predicament of abstract art– the artist’s intention versus the public’s interpretation. “When you speak what’s in your heart, people connect to it. Even though it’s personal, I have had so many people tell me they have been in similar situations; it connects them to my work,” she says andadds that the audience is getting used to abstract art, regardless of how obscure such a form may impress the viewer at first. “Abstract talks a lot, not directly, but to what’s inside us.”

The artist also intends to convey an innate gratification for viewing the skill behind every piece. The interspersed threads manifest as a line of thought, often sporadically appearing, but also set in its path. The thread is taut and relaxed, forms knots and spirals, encouraging the eye to trace and question its trajectory. A striking installation titled ‘Celestial Clouds’ (the only piece not ‘untitled’ on display) welcomes you to the exhibition. It is like a transcendental wave of gauze suspended in air, inviting the audience to a realm of quiet self-reflection. It prepares the mind to wonder, and wander, in Haneen Almoosawi’s aptly titled collection that challenges every enthusiast of abstract art looking for a slice of stillness amid the chaos.

At Pristine Contemporary, Bhishma Pitamah Marg, near Lajpat Nagar metro station; Till August 30; 11am to 6pm.