Ohida Khandakar

A Thousand Thunders

Exhibition entrance view of A Thousand Thunders, Project 88, Mumbai, 2024. A framed watercolour painting of a headless woman in an orange skirt and green top holding a white flag against stormy dark clouds hangs on the white gallery wall to the left, with the exhibition title 'A Thousand Thunders' and the artist's name lettered on the wall to the right alongside a QR code.

Solo exhibition at Project 88 Mumbai, 2024. Watercolour paintings, drawings, and the short film A Collision in the Wind (15 min) — exploring grief, collective trauma, and the resilience of Muslim women in contemporary India.

Written by

Khandakar Ohida

in

,

Solo Exhibition at Project 88, Mumbai, 2024

A Collision in the Wind

Short film, 15 minutes, 2024.

A Collision in the Wind explores personal grief as a lens through which to witness collective trauma. The film follows a woman devastated by the violent death of her lover, killed in the city by a mob. Numb and broken, she drifts across landscapes — urban and natural — searching for solace, clarity, and a sense of belonging. A bronze bodna (ablution jug) recurs as a visual leitmotif, symbolising both spiritual intimacy and unbearable absence.

Drawn to nature and moments of solitude, the protagonist seeks escape from grief. Yet the city — alive with crowded stations, bustling markets, and shifting skies — continually calls her back. As she journeys through this fractured yet vibrant world, the city’s textures, sounds, and silences begin to mirror her internal transformation. Her mourning becomes an act of survival, her journey a quiet resistance.

Film still from A Collision in the Wind (short film, 15 minutes), 2024. Multiple silhouetted human figures are layered over a mottled, blood-pink textured ground — bodies fallen, one standing — evoking collective trauma and the aftermath of mob violence.
Film still from A Collision in the Wind, 2024. Close-up of a young woman at night, her face illuminated against the city skyline behind her, looking directly into the camera — a moment of raw, still grief amid the urban environment.
Film still from A Collision in the Wind, 2024. A lone figure in yellow stands on a rooftop or elevated ground in silhouette against a dusky pink-and-purple city skyline at dusk, high-rise buildings lit in the background — a scene of solitude and longing.
Installation and display view of A Thousand Thunders, Project 88, Mumbai, 2024. The darkened gallery space shows the film A Collision in the Wind projected on the right wall while the lit gallery beyond reveals a grid of small framed watercolour paintings and larger works mounted on the walls.
Gallery view with film projection, Project 88, Mumbai, 2024

Paintings

Large-Scale Works

Where the Wind Carries Hope, watercolour on paper, 60 x 126 inches, 2024. A large panoramic watercolour in a palette of dusty pinks, warm earth tones, and violet-red. Figures drawn in a vocabulary blending South Asian miniature painting and folk imagery surge across the composition — some mounted, some flying, some armed with bows and arrows, a central veiled figure in purple commanding the space. The work evokes a collective, magical-realist uprising.
Where the Wind Carries Hope, watercolour on paper, 60 × 126 inches, 2024
Whispers of Emptiness, mixed media on paper, 60 x 168 inches, 2024. A long horizontal work in golden amber and deep purple. A river-like purple form outlined in gold winds across the entire width of the composition, threading together multiple veiled and unveiled figures — some holding tools, some crouching, some emerging from the ground — in a procession of grief, labour, and quiet resistance.
Whispers of Emptiness, mixed media on paper, 60 × 168 inches, 2024
The Symphony of Tomorrow, mixed media on paper, 60 x 100 inches, 2024. A wide-format painting depicting five women in vivid, patterned dress — in green, purple, teal, gold, and orange — each holding a domestic or ceremonial object aloft: a pot, a broom, a platter. Their raised arms and shared rhythm transform the gesture of labour into one of collective protest, set against a layered, mineral-textured ground.
The Symphony of Tomorrow, mixed media on paper, 60 × 100 inches, 2024

Individual Works

The Quiet Rumble, watercolour and photo ink on paper, 30 x 21 inches, 2024. A portrait-format watercolour of a headless female figure in a saffron orange skirt, green top, and beaded belt, standing with arms extended holding a small white flag. The figure is surrounded by billowing dark purple-grey storm clouds and stands on rough ground, her body the axis between sky and earth.
The Quiet Rumble
watercolour and photo ink on paper
30 × 21 inches, 2024
The Veil of Fury, watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 21 x 30 inches, 2024. A portrait-format watercolour in which the veil itself becomes the subject and the agent: an embroidered purple garment — faceless, with only hands and feet visible — holds a bow, the fabric billowing and animated against a deep purple-grey wash. The veil is rendered simultaneously as body and weapon.
The Veil of Fury
watercolour and acrylic gold on paper
21 × 30 inches, 2024
Where Tomorrow Unfolds, watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 30 x 21 inches, 2024. A woman in deep golden-yellow cloth reclines and floats horizontally, her body surrounded by spiky purple forms and a spinning wheel or chakra. The golden acrylic gives the work a luminous, icon-like quality. The composition hovers between dreaming and dying.
Where Tomorrow Unfolds
watercolour and acrylic gold on paper
30 × 21 inches, 2024
Dancing with Defiance, watercolour on paper, 30 x 21 inches, 2024. A group of women in colourful traditional dress — green, purple, teal, orange — dance or march together, each carrying a domestic tool: brooms, pots, ladles. Their movement is joyful and insistent, the choreography of everyday labour transformed into collective protest.
Dancing with Defiance
watercolour on paper
30 × 21 inches, 2024

Untitled-1, watercolour on paper, 8 × 11 inches each, 2024

Untitled-1 (i), watercolour on paper, 8 x 11 inches, 2024. A woman in a pink floral hijab and matching dress sits on a green hillock, one arm reaching outward. In her lap rests the body of a man — depicted as a dark burgundy-red silhouette with visible wounds — in a composition that echoes the pietà.
Untitled-1 (ii), watercolour on paper, 8 x 11 inches, 2024. A woman in an orange sari bends forward on a green ground, cradling the extended legs of a wounded body — the limbs rendered in deep red-wine with bruised markings — the face of the figure turned away in grief.
Untitled-1 (iii), watercolour on paper, 8 x 11 inches, 2024. A faceless woman in a yellow floral-patterned hijab and dress, sitting on green ground, holds a wounded male body — shown in dark burgundy with bruising — across her lap in a tender but sorrow-laden embrace.
Untitled-1 (iv), watercolour on paper, 8 x 11 inches, 2024. A woman in a turquoise hijab and tunic, trimmed with gold-green geometric detail, sits on a rocky green ground beside a wounded figure whose dark body slumps against her — a moment of protective grief.
Untitled-1 (v), watercolour on paper, 8 x 11 inches, 2024. A woman in a green top and green floral skirt holds a wounded, bruised body — rendered in deep rose-red — against her own, both figures merging into an upright posture that reads as much like defiance as mourning.

Untitled-2, watercolour and golden acrylic on wasli board, 11 × 10 inches each, 2024

Untitled-2 (i), watercolour and golden acrylic on wasli board, 11 x 10 inches, 2024. A mandala-like eight-petalled flower form in deep blue-violet and purple tones on a burnished gold ground, framed in a purple-and-black border.
Untitled-2 (ii), watercolour and golden acrylic on wasli board, 11 x 10 inches, 2024. A mandala-like eight-petalled flower in muted grey-green and mauve on a gold ground with a purple-and-black frame.
Untitled-2 (iii), watercolour and golden acrylic on wasli board, 11 x 10 inches, 2024. A mandala flower form in rich dark green and deep brown-black on a gold ground, framed in purple and black.
Untitled-2 (iv), watercolour and golden acrylic on wasli board, 11 x 10 inches, 2024. A mandala flower in warm terracotta-red and black-brown on a gold ground with a purple-and-black frame.

Untitled-4, watercolour on paper, 16 × 12 inches each, 2024

Untitled-4 (i), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A wounded, bruised figure in motion — running or flying — trails a fragment of purple fabric outlined in gold and carries a small flag.
Untitled-4 (ii), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A battered figure lies horizontal, one arm raised holding a small flag, the purple-gold fabric cape streaming beneath the body — suspended between flight and fall, between life and death.
Untitled-4 (iii), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A wounded figure at full stretch across the paper, one hand raised with a slender blade, the other trailing downward. The purple-and-gold fabric unfurls beneath — the body bruised and spotted but forcefully airborne.
Untitled-4 (iv), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A bruised figure in a seated but propulsive posture — leaning back, one arm raised holding a flag — the purple-gold fabric spread beneath as both propulsion and wound.
Untitled-4 (v), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A figure mid-leap, torso marked with wounds, holding a placard or sign aloft in one hand, purple-and-gold fabric spread beneath — the act of protest made airborne and urgent.
Untitled-4 (vi), watercolour on paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2024. A figure lunging forward and downward, one arm raised with a blade-like form, the body heavily bruised in deep purple-red, the gold-outlined purple fabric twisting behind — the most violent and kinetic image in the series.

Untitled-5, watercolour on paper, 21 × 30 inches, 2024

Untitled-5, watercolour on paper, 21 x 30 inches, 2024. A large single work in a palette of deep indigo, purple, and pale pink. A veiled figure in a dark embroidered cloak stands at the centre, surrounded by fragmented limbs — legs, arms — and a small lizard-like creature. The composition is dense and fractured, the figure at once overwhelmed and sovereign.

Untitled-6, watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 15 × 11 inches each, 2024

Untitled-6 (i), watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 15 x 11 inches, 2024. A surreal, map-like composition in which a dark winding road or river-form carries star-like flecks. A red tomato sits in the road; a woman's arm with a bracelet reaches up from one side; a leafy face or head emerges from another.
Untitled-6 (ii), watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 15 x 11 inches, 2024. A dark road-form curves and collides with a large, vivid tomato at the picture's centre. A small figure in yellow and brown sits to the left; a blue pipe emits smoke or hair to the right.

Untitled-7, watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 11 × 15 inches, 2024

Untitled-7, watercolour and acrylic gold on paper, 11 x 15 inches, 2024. A landscape of tall, narrow obelisk-like forms — some patterned with gold stars, others plain dark or polka-dotted — rise from a rubble-strewn, violet-pink ground beneath a hazy dusky sky. The work reads as both ruin and monument: an elegiac, futurist vision of what stands after destruction.

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