AIRDROME

Ruchi and Sanjeev have been working together in the Aksa studio for several years. Their creative partnership is not incidental to the work — it is structural. Ruchi's Three Times as Dream solo show was explicitly presented alongside Sanjeev's furniture installations: her dream cabinets and his architectural furniture occupied the same space as twin explorations of the unconscious and the built world. The show's press noted the way the two practices were 'in perfect harmony' — her layered interior worlds, his objects as narrative devices. AIRDROME is their joint enterprise. The metaphysical thread that runs through Sanjeev's lyrics— runs directly into Ruchi's dreamwork and mythology-based visual practice. They are two facets of the same sustained inquiry: what lies beneath the surface of the visible world, and how do you hold it in a form?

AlRdrome is an artist-run platform that materialized out of a collective dream - to rejoice in the spirit of art and to explore its direct relevance to our lives and our communities. Airdrome has an exciting history of celebrating art's pervasive, participatory nature by creating a coherent environment.

Our intent is to encourage togetherness and collaboration, nurture new partnerships and build significant social capital through these shared artistic experiences. We are set to explore connections between contemporary art practices and broader cultural and social issues.

AlRdrome's mission is to be a catalyst for a broader dialogue between artists and the public and to make more room in the aksa community for art.

Sanjeev co-founded Theatre Spirits in 2008 with industrialist and arts patron Shipra Singh Rana as a registered theatre society. It produced shows that were invited to Bharat Rang Mahotsav, an international theatre festival curated by National School of Drama where Sanjeev Sharma shared the stage with the likes of Pina Bausch. It is now being revived as the performing arts wing of Aksa Arts Village.

As co-founder and operational director of AIRDROME, he runs the day-to-day of the studio alongside Ruchi, and makes furniture installation works that draw on Mumbai's colonial architectural heritage — objects that are, as he describes them, 'tiny, whimsical buildings in their own right.’

"AIRDROME is doing something I have believed in for a long time — that art belongs to the place it comes from, and to the people who live there. We founded Theatre Spirits because we believed performance should live in communities, not just in theatres. AIRDROME has always been the same belief in a different form. Watching it grow in Aksa has been one of the great privileges of my life. I have watched Ruchi and Sanjeev build this from nothing but conviction — no institution, no safety net, just the work and the belief that it mattered. That kind of courage deserves a permanent home. We are building one.”

- Shipra Singh Rana

They are currently in discussion with Mesco Steel Group for the first Phase of anchor investment towards building the Aksa Arts Village that will run The Aksa women artisan programme as the community dimension that roots both practices in a place and a social reality as a case study in what the Indian creative economy could look like: artist-as-institution-builder, community-as-collaborator, art-as-livelihood-programme. It will house AIRDROME as an artist Collective, Theatre Spirits as performing arts wing, The Museum of Dreams an internationally facing artistic flagship consisting of VR, Moving Image and physical works.

INDIAN ALCHEMY

During the lockdown years, Ruchi and Sanjeev started one more thing in the Aksa studio: a kitchen lab. Indian Alchemy produces handcrafted soaps — five distinct varieties, each made by the women of Madh Island from therapeutic-grade essential oils, plant-based butters, fruit enzymes and botanical embeds.

A goat milk bar with turmeric, tea tree, frankincense and rosemary. An aloe scrub soap with lavender, lemon, patchouli and embedded herbs — translucent, with roots and botanical matter suspended inside like something preserved in amber. A detoxifying shea butter soap with coffee grounds, cinnamon, charcoal and vanilla. An activated charcoal bar with orange, spearmint and cinnamon. An ambrette seed soap, rich and exalting, with lavender and Himalayan cedarwood. simply: once you have used it, nothing else will do.

For the three women of Madh Island, learning to make these soaps did far more than teach a craft.

It offered them a new kind of authorship.

What began as training in measuring oils, blending essential essences, and understanding the alchemy of plants became a path to confidence and economic independence. They learned to work with precision and care, transforming ingredients that were once unfamiliar — goat milk, turmeric, activated charcoal, ambrette seed, lavender, cedarwood — into objects of beauty and utility.

The process changed the way they saw themselves. They were no longer only homemakers or informal workers; they became skilled artisans producing a luxury product with their own hands. Each bar they poured, cut, and wrapped carried both technical knowledge and personal pride.

The work also connected them to a wider world. Their soaps travelled beyond Madh Island to homes, exhibitions, and gift boxes, carrying with them the story of the women who made them. To know that something created in their village was valued by discerning customers was deeply affirming.

Financially, the training created an additional source of income that could be earned close to home, allowing them to balance family responsibilities with paid work. But the more lasting transformation was less tangible: a sense of self-worth, agency, and possibility.

They discovered that they could master a complex process, create something exquisite, and be recognized for their craftsmanship.

In that sense, Indian Alchemy was not only about soap.

It was about turning knowledge into livelihood, and livelihood into dignity.