In photos: Check out more exhibits from the Museum of Rejects

The pop-up exhibition organised by Gaysi Family offered ‘a new home’ for discarded works, deleted drafts, unfinished to-do lists and more.

(Courtesy Gaysi Family)

Among the selected artworks was Vaibhav Tanna’s An Ordinary Dream, a tapestry created as an exploration of time and perception. “It is inspired by a dream of a starry night sky reflecting into a flowing river—where stillness and movement coexist, bending reality,” says Tanna, 31.

Visual artist and zine maker Saloni Mahajan says she just couldn’t understand why she painted this piece. Feeling Scene has nonetheless been years in the making. Work on it began during the pandemic. “Over the years, elements kept adding themselves. Four years later, the piece revealed its meaning: the longing to be seen,” Mahajan writes in her concept note. (Courtesy Gaysi Family)

He rejected the piece, a deep blue patch with thousands of stitched stars, because it felt too safe, he says. “At that time I wanted to push beyond what I already knew,” he says.

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(Courtesy Gaysi Family)

Alisha Aranha rejected her piece titled How We Sleep because she felt it would make no difference to the world. The 36-year-old emerging potter and ceramicist’s work contrasts comfort and compromise. “It explores the deeply personal yet universal act of sleep. Through sculpture and photography, it examines how security, privilege, gender, and mental state shape the position in which we sleep. The series invites viewers to reflect on their own sense of exhaustion, safety, and resilience,” she writes in her concept note.

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Akshita Sinha submitter her daily practical journal, in which she sketches regularly to stay in touch with her craft. “The sketchbook represents a space where my thoughts could exist freely without the pressure of being perfect,” says Sinha, who often revisits rejected work to help her refine ideas. “The sketchbook acts as a blueprint for future projects, allowing me to see what works, learn from mistakes, and build upon them without fear.”

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Visual artist Vaidehi Sadiwala, 25, submitted work that has faced rejection, from audiences and mainstream platforms, for their unapologetic themes of nudity, political satire and critiques of religion.