A new exhibition at Bikaner House in New Delhi turns discarded technological materials into a lens for examining how digital tools have shaped everyday life, memory and labour. Titled Decoding Digital DNA, the show brings together sculptural installations and paintings made from obsolete electronic components such as keyboards, circuits and processors, materials accumulated over nearly three decades of artistic practice by artist Mukesh Sharma.
Curated by Archana Khare Ghose, the exhibition presents electronic waste within large, immersive spatial environments, positioning these objects as cultural records rather than industrial leftovers. Rather than treating technological debris as waste, the exhibition reframes it as evidence of lived experience, embedded with histories of use, communication and labour.
Material, memory and obsolescence
Sharma said his practice does not treat tradition and technology as opposing forces. He explained that both operate within the same lived reality, with tradition providing memory, rhythm and ethical grounding, while technology introduces speed, disruption and excess. His work, he said, occupies the space where the two intersect, allowing neither to dominate.
According to the artist, discarded digital materials became central to his practice around two decades ago, when he began to see waste as a truthful record of contemporary life. Objects such as keyboards, he noted, are not neutral; they carry traces of communication, labour and personal use. Over time, these materials came to function as archaeological evidence of the present rather than debris.
This approach, Sharma added, allows the work to address themes of consumption and memory without overt explanation or moral framing, leaving interpretation open to the viewer’s own experience and associations.
Over the years, Sharma’s practice has been shaped by sustained institutional engagement and critical recognition, with his works entering major exhibitions and public collections in India and abroad.
Scale, space and audience
Several works in Decoding Digital DNA are being shown publicly for the first time. Sharma said the exhibition reflects a shift in his practice from making individual objects to creating environments that viewers physically enter and move through. The emphasis, he added, has moved toward scale, immersion and spatial experience.
While the work has been exhibited internationally, Sharma said differences in audience interpretation have not altered his process. He noted that many viewers respond through shared familiarity with now obsolete technologies, and that the materials themselves carry experiences that travel across geographies.
Curator Archana Khare Ghose said she has followed Sharma’s work for over two decades and felt the present moment was right to bring this body of work together. She added that the decision was driven less by timing and more by the maturity and depth of the practice.
Ghose said the scale of the installations was integral to the curatorial approach, given how deeply digital technology has embedded itself in daily life. The exhibition, she added, is intended to prompt reflection on this material reality rather than to critique technology itself.
Decoding Digital DNA opens on December 18 and will remain on view until December 23 at the Main Art Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi.