Hansika Jethnani is a poet, visual artist, writer, and somatic healing coach. Her work moves across mediums; zines, illustrations, painting, photography, and the written word, exploring themes of colonialism, migration, ancestral memory, queerness, body image, shame, and the ongoing process of unlearning and healing. Her practice is both personal and political, a tender weaving of lived stories and emotions residing within her heart.
Her poems have been published in multiple anthologies and publications, and her zines have been awarded by Bombay Underground and Bazinega.
She was born in Jakarta and spent her early years there before moving to Shanghai at thirteen. At seventeen, she moved to London, and by twenty-three, she found herself in India—first in Mumbai, where she lived for nearly four years, before making Goa her home in 2022.
Being part of the South Asian diaspora deeply shapes her practice; themes of movement, and belonging are woven throughout her work. During her tenure as Education Officer at University of the Arts London Students' Union she co-founded the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine.
Her visual art has always leaned toward abstraction, often embracing experimentation with form, texture, and materiality. Much of her process is about surrender; allowing the artwork to unfold intuitively, letting the elements intervene, and trusting what wants to emerge. She considers herself a mediator between the piece and the forces that shape it. Deeply inspired by the natural world, she often works with nature-based materials and themes as well, finding resonance in organic forms and cycles.
Currently, she is developing a mixed media series centered around the yoni; both as symbol and source. This ongoing body of work draws connections between the yoni, the Earth, and the sacred power of creation. Through clay, paint, and found natural materials, she explores the yoni as origin, portal, and memory; honoring its place in personal healing and collective remembering.
She completed her BA (Hons) in Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, in 2016. She has also been mentored in creative writing through programmes with Apples & Snakes and Poetry Plant Project. Painting, on the other hand, has been a self-taught and intuitive extension of her creative practice.