Unbound Forms at the Hepworth: how Indian and Bangladeshi artists turned craft traditions into contemporary sculpture

Craft traditions are often imagined as practices rooted in the past: carefully preserved techniques passed from one generation to the next. But Unbound Forms at The Hepworth Wakefield reveals a more dynamic story. Bringing together the work of five pioneering women artists from India and Bangladesh, the exhibition shows how materials such as textiles, metal, ceramic, wood and paint can be transformed into works that honour inherited skills while pushing them into new territory.

The artists in the exhibition lived through a period of enormous change. Four were alive when

© La Conversation - lundi 3 août 2026