How Long Will We Live? Or When Will We Die?

How Long Will We Live? Or When Will We Die? marks Benitha Perciyal's latest exhibition at Ashvita's, offering a rare insight into an artistic practice built over three decades. Conceived as an extension of the artist's studio, it brings together paintings, sculptures, artist's books, and installations alongside research materials, personal archives, and collected objects that have informed her work. The exhibition is shaped by a childhood spent drawing on the blackboard walls of a house in Thiruvannamalai, carried forward through years of sustained observation, from still life and self-portraiture to her enduring bond with a rescued squirrel named Jerry, who appears throughout her paintings as a quiet companion. Across seeds, shells, spices, teak-carved books, and fragments of devotional sculpture, the work traces her engagement with displacement, faith, and the natural world.

"I don't expect everyone to understand the work immediately. I simply hope they spend time with it. If they slow down, observe carefully, and begin asking their own questions, then the work has already begun its conversation. For me, that conversation is more important than providing fixed answers." — Benitha Perciyal

More than a survey of artworks, the exhibition offers a glimpse into Perciyal's way of seeing. Reflecting the atmosphere of her studio, it brings together finished works with the books, research, and objects that have shaped her practice, inviting visitors into the same patient looking, questioning, and making that define her work.