In the middle of the gallery hangs a shiny black installation TIE(D) TIE(S) by artist Lakshmi Madhavan. Its outline resembles the map of Kerala. In one corner, a video detailing the process of the work is played for the visitors. According to Lakshmi, the installation, made of burnt coir and wire, explores the narrative of identity, culture and belonging.
Born in Vadakara, brought up in Mumbai and then moving to various places including Europe and Hong Kong, working on this piece of art was an emotional and personal journey for Lakshmi. “My parents moved out of Kerala when I was a child. Though I used to visit Kerala during summer holidays, Mumbai — then Bombay — was more of home to me,” she says. “For me, it is a homecoming. It is nostalgic and symbolic to me apart from the fact that I am doing my first show in Kerala,” adds Lakshmi, whose show is currently on at Kashi Art Gallery in Fort Kochi.
Lakshmi during her work.
TIE(D).. is, in a way, a journey back to the roots. It is a search for identity. It was the questions of belonging which popped up in Lakshmi’s mind during her European days that led her to this thought. “I may have been asking these questions subconsciously always. But, it hit me hard when I was in Europe; I saw the way people from each country embrace their language.”
“I was always kept out of conversations as I didn’t speak their language. That made me think. I am in a place where I don’t speak their language. I am a Malayali, but I am not fluent in my mother tongue either. So, where do I belong? I wanted to come back and explore,” Lakshmi says.
Lakshmi's installation at the gallery.
And, she chose Fort Kochi to work on this project. “I felt Fort Kochi as an ideal place as it has a duality like me. Sometimes, I feel that Fort Kochi is not a part of Kerala, but in reality it is an integral part of the state,” explains Lakshmi, who stumbled upon coir during her stay in Fort Kochi.
She was looking for a locally available medium that would encompass all her questions. “When I came here, I was ideating in a different direction. I love to work outside my studio. I think coir caught my attention while roaming around in Mattancherry. I saw it in various forms in the market and street. I began to touch and feel it and zeroed in on it,” she says.
The installation, which has three levels, is made of 3000 meters of coir. The process has been intriguing and emotional for Lakshmi. Coir brought back a lot of her childhood memories and Lakshmi realised that coir and she had travelled a similar path. “Coir was part of my life during summer holidays. During the work, I recalled touching the rope to draw water from the well in my grandparents’s house and the coir float we used when we swam in the nearby pond. Another memory was about Oonjal (swing, with rope handles),” recalls Lakshmi, who did a research on the material thereafter. “I went to Cherthala and Alappuzha, interacted with coir workers and experts and visited the coir museum. All these helped me realise the rich history of the material. And I felt there is a parallel between the narrative of the medium and my life. It had its ups and downs and like me, the material is also trying for a comeback,” she elucidates. But she says that the installation is not purely autobiographical. “I think it has universal notions.”
To create TIE(D).., she sliced the coir into different pieces, burnt them and hanged them in three levels. “The three levels indicate present, past and future and the knots represent umbilical cord.” Even working on it has been a different experience for the artist as it is a new medium to her. “It was kind of therapeutic – to cut it, burn it and hang it,” says Lakshmi, who quit her corporate career three years ago to pursue art. She got trained under the German artist, Bernhard Martin, and assisted Jitish Kallat during the production and planning of his first career retrospective Here After Here curated by Catherine David. Her interactive installation I need some air, exhibited at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai received a lot of appreciation. Made of cement, plants and neon lighting, it was about Mumbai struggling to breathe.
Ask her whether leaving her job was a difficult choice, she replies, smiling, “It was not, as art has been my passion always. Looking back, I don’t regret at all. That was also an experience that was needed for me to arrive here. But, now I can’t think of going back,” she concludes. The show, inaugurated by actor Mohanlal, is on till May 21.
