“Gathering Delights,” NS Harsha’s solo exhibition at Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, includes Nations (2007–19), an installation of 193 sewing machines that comments on the hidden labors intrinsic to a country’s development. Elsewhere in the show, textile-based paintings, participatory workshops, and immersive painting-installations likewise encompass the Mysore-based artist’s observations of everyday life and the human condition. In this interview with ArtAsiaPacific, conducted on the occasion of “Gathering Delights,” Harsha speaks about what drives his engagement with textiles; what struck him during his visits to Hong Kong; how those scenes fed into his new work; and why, for an artist, observing is sometimes more important than making.