India, April 5 -- 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.

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.

.

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. Thro...