Asia Arts award for Hema Shironi
Hema Shironi, the artist wielding a seamstress’s needle, has been honoured with a 2026 Asia Arts Future Award (South Asia), presented by the Asia Society India Centre.
In her early thirties, Hema’s work is unique. She uses embroidery, patchwork and bricolage to talk about issues like home, belonging, and the bonds that connect individuals and communities across borders.
Often she embroiders things that she cannot put into words. At first she was moved to create her art as a person who had to move home nearly 20 times given her family and community’s experiences during the war years.
Proud moment: Hema Shironi(right) with Saskia Fernando and Sangita Jindal
Migration and moving from place to place being her major theme, Hema would also create art out of the bundles that displaced people carried their belongings in when moving from one home to another, while most of her embroidery and patchwork are visual metaphors for migration.
Her embroidery looks incomplete, destroyed or threadbare while the patchwork is jagged. Eminent artist Jagath Weerasinghe said of Hema’s art: “The sense that land is never stable, never fully claimed, speaks to the reality that home, for the displaced, is both an aspiration and a question. Shironi’s art asks us to consider the emotional and ethical dimensions of the question and understand home as an ongoing negotiation.”
Speaking about the recent accolade Hema said she is very happy. One of her teachers at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, where she did her Masters in Fine Arts had won the same award so Hema had always had high esteem for it. “Also, when someone internationally recognizes you it really means something.”
Now in its tenth edition, the awards honour four artists from South Asia every year.
Currently living in Athurugiriya, Hema says the new location has helped her to add a new dimension to her work. But her biggest inspiration right now is probably her three-year-old daughter. Hema says that the house is ‘vibrant’ with her presence and she is also inspired by her colourful doodles – more grist to her mill.
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