Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi's 'Cosmos' at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai

The exhibition 'Cosmos' by Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi, on view at Jhaveri Contemporary in Mumbai from July 9 to August 22, 2026, transforms the gallery into a space where industrial machinery and cosmic imagery converge. The show features illuminated signs spelling 'COSMOS' in English and 'Kehkashan' in Urdu, which draw on South Asian street signage and manuscript illustrations. Nine archival pigment prints on Diasec depict everyday machines—compressors, drills, presses, millers, grinders—found in small fabrication workshops across South Asia. These prints, such as 'Acubens, Cosmos' and 'Tureis, Cosmos', are set within irregular, nostalgic cutouts reminiscent of Art Deco facades and manuscript cartouches. The Dadis challenge the divide between industrial and decorative, arguing that machines occupy a threshold between usefulness and beauty. The works often give machines human or animal postures, as seen in 'Rukbat, Cosmos' and 'Talitha, Cosmos', emphasizing a hand-painted, empathetic interpretation over Pop art's standardization. The exhibition's atmosphere, with exposed concrete and weathered walls, hovers between workshop and shrine, suggesting that fabrication is a mode of world-building. The review, written by Mario D'Souza, a curator and writer based between Goa and Kochi, India, and director of programs at the Kochi Biennale Foundation, highlights how the Dadis treat these modest machines with the same fascination reserved for emerging technologies.