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When Baroda-based Neha Thakar arrived in Delhi last month,what was most noticeable to the young artist was the cacophony and different scents of the Capital.

Young artists across India document their surroundings in their works at the Khoj annual Peers programme

When Baroda-based Neha Thakar arrived in Delhi last month,what was most noticeable to the young artist was the cacophony and different scents of the Capital. You can feel the excitement,what with people coming here from across India, says the 29-year-old. It was this observation that the Maharaja Sayajirao University post-graduate decided to translate into an artwork titled Unknown Cell at Khoj Studios. A balcony in the Khoj space has been converted into a false room by suspending cotton sheets. Upon pushing a pressure pump attached to a pillar placed at the center,the sprinkler above sprays scents mixed together by Thakar,from a combination of rice alcohol,coffee,vanilla and cologne water,and haldi and apple. It represents the varied culture of Delhi, says Thakar,who is one of the five artists who has been chosen for the Peers annual education and outreach residency programme initiated in 2003.

Selected from over 100 applicants from across India,the artists have been working in Khoj Studios for four weeks,from May 15. They are encouraged to experiment. At this stage they are free from market limitations and association with galleries, says Latika Gupta,curator at Khoj. While the initial shortlisting was done by Khoj,the final selection was made by artists Bani Abidi and Manisha Parekh. We select artists who practice different mediums, adds Gupta. So Kashmir-based Malik Sajad is a cartoonist,Delhi-based Rabindra Patra makes art from electronic waste and NIFT graduate Angat Sharma has a fashion background.

It always helps to exchange notes with other artists, says Patra,27. His work titled Khoj has his commute around Delhi chronicled in 3×2 inch photographs presented as a collage on a door that leads into a room. Inside,Patra has Resistance from electric circuits pasted on a fibreglass book and black electrical tape spun around a fish-shaped piggy bank. We are constantly in search,whether it is on the road or in life. The book represents our search for knowledge,in the piggy bank we save the little money we have, says the BFA graduate from Dhauli College of Art and Craft,Bhubaneswar.

Sajad has represented the Kashmir conflict in his animation video Hopscotch. The borders of the linear squares transform into boundaries of barbed wires in the Valley. Delhi is the political center,so I wanted to make everyone aware of the constant tension in Kashmir, says Sajad,22. A few steps away,Bhavin Mistry has recorded his Delhi experience in a video that has him drawing with charcoal on his body in an empty room in South Extension,where he was living during the residency. It depicts crammed spaces. Itll be interesting to get feedback, says Mistry,26. Before others,examining his work will be Vrushali Dhage,the young critic in residence,also part of the annual programme. It wont be a surprise if some of the artists make it big in the coming years,after all Khoj has a knack of catching them young Subodh Gupta made some of his earliest significant works in the same studio.

The exhibition at Khoj is on till June 15

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