Exhibitions

warrior garments – afra eisma

Stitched, layered, painted and charged with feeling, Dutch artist afra eisma’s warrior garments  invite you into a world where anger is not contained, but worn.

Following its showcase at the Dutch Warehouse in Fort Kochi, MAP brings these works to Bengaluru. Sewn in silk and organza, the garments hide activist reflections—phrases hand-painted across luminous textiles, stitched together into forms that hold both vulnerability and strength. These works explore anger as a potent force for transformation; becoming vessels to hold and give form to rage. They create a space where visitors, especially those who have endured violence, are acknowledged and embraced. By foregrounding emotion as both personal and political energy, eisma invites viewers to reconsider how vulnerability, resistance, and healing can coexist. 

Using bright colours and play to speak about darker and more complex emotions is a hallmark of afra’s practice. Anger and rage emerging from personal experiences, and sometimes borrowing from the articulations of other writers and activists, are featured on the textiles. As you move through the space, the garments ask quiet but insistent questions: How do you make yourself feel safe in bearing the richness of a boundless emotional life? In eisma’s world, softness does not dilute intensity, it makes room for it.

We invite you to experience ‘warrior garments – afra eisma’ opening on April 11, 2026.

Image Courtesy: afra eisma, Images by Ali Monis Naqvi

afra eisma

afra eisma (b. 1993) lives and works between The Hague and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. eisma creates immersive, interactive installations composed of large-scale tapestries, colourful ceramics, and hand-made soft sculptures that invite touch, rest and connection. Their environments become spaces of hope and love—sites where imagination, care and solidarity take shape.

Using bright colours and playful approaches as recurring strategies, eisma engages with darker emotions and complex lived experiences. Garments hide activist reflections, becoming vessels to wear anger; a stomach transforms into a container for inner rumblings; elongated arms extend outward to hold you. Through such gestures, eisma creates room for ambiguity, reflection, allyship and emotional intensity—centring care and generosity as acts of resistance.

eisma views the imagination as a politically-charged terrain: a universal space for gathering, dialogue and mutual exchange. Their work also speaks about gender-based violence and mental wellbeing—issues often surrounded by silence or stigma. Through tactile, compassionate environments, eisma invites collective acknowledgement and dialogue around these experiences, creating spaces for conversations, healing, empathy and shared strength.

Read More