In the quiet folds of rural Palakkad, an artist duo has been turning the rustic, pastoral rhythms of village life into a thought-provoking art form. Cows, goats, and ducks — beings often relegated to the background of human existence — are given centre stage, their quiet presence magnified using wool, beeswax, feathers, wood, and even animal semen.
TNIE met the duo, Namratha Neog and Sunoj D, at a recent month-long show titled ‘Sentient Beings’ at the Durbar Hall in Kochi. Here, the creatures become storytellers, reminding us that the boundaries between human and animal, nature and culture, are as fluid as the seasons.
This isn’t art that simply depicts the rural landscape. It emerges from it, woven with the same textures and materials that shape everyday life. Through their unique creations, the duo, who call themselves the ‘Lakshmi Nivas Collective’, nudges one to reflect on the shared rhythms of nature and the human experience.
Though the exhibition wrapped up last Sunday, the essence of their art lingers, posing questions about the politics of the nature we inhabit. For instance, an installation, titled ‘The Solemn Passage of an Act’, features foraged chicken feathers clamped in beeswax and reclaimed wood.
Medicinal plant stains, soot and graphite, plants, animals, and the landscapes humans dwell in become the canvas for Namratha and Sunoj at their house-cum-studio, ‘Lakshmi Nivas’, in Paruthur village. For them, the line between nature, culture, human and the non-human is blurred.
“We live in a remote Palakkad village. We live with our animals and take them grazing in the pasture lands after rice-crop season,” says Namratha, an archaeology scholar-turned-artist, as she shares how she and her partner Sunoj practise art that merges with their lifestyle.
‘Sentient Beings’ is an exhibition in a myriad of mediums. Bulls and a herd of cattle, built out of reclaimed wood; beeswax on the canvas of sheepskin fabric; sketches with graphite on acid-free paper — these are just a few examples of the exhibits emerging from ‘Lakshmi Nivas’.
The collection includes paintings, sculptures, embroidery works, and even a single-channel video of 11 minutes, where animals become the lens through which we view the spaces we inhabit.
The Lakshmi Nivas Collective advocates for a decentralised practice of art. Formed six years ago, their journey to this first solo exhibition was a quest to understand the complexity of the tethered, entangled structures humans have created with the non-human beings around us. Through their lives with domesticated animals, they navigate the ways in which humans occupy their landscapes.
Notably, the Lakshmi Nivas Collective was previously part of the UAE-based Jameel Art Centre’s two-year research project on landscape art, where they created a garden reflecting human-animal interaction in the Middle Eastern ecology.
“Even before we met, both of us had a subconscious internal conflict about how to reimagine practising our work. These negotiations with ourselves led us to this life,” says Namratha, who hails from Assam.
“In our village, grazing is not a solo event. The entire village partakes in it. What we discuss with our neighbours — the seasons, the animals — this practice ignites our art. That is how we became a collective.”
Sunoj, who is from Paruthur, sees their six-year journey as an organic process. The changing seasons and landscapes guide their modes of expression, which is fundamentally tied to the language of art they have mastered. Their choice of mediums reflects this process. “For us, the idea is more important. Then, the medium follows,” he says.
A highlight exhibit of ‘Sentient Beings’ features three screen timers. One counts up to twenty-one days the incubation period for a chicken egg to hatch. Another, twenty-one weeks the gestation period of a goat. The third, nine months the time it takes for a cow to give birth.
“These Python-coded screens mark the beginning of an entire food economy,” says Sunoj. “Then there is sheep wool fabric, which depicts a pasture, reflecting the grazing that roots our lives with the animals. On paper, this won’t make any sense.”
The materials Namratha and Sunoj use preserve a sense of historicity. Bulls assembled from reclaimed wood, and landscapes painted with animal semen are just some examples. The medium, they say, is integral to conveying the essence of their ideas.
For these ‘herders-cum-artists’, life and art are inseparable from their practices, unlike the norms of product-based artistry. “We are going back to the village now; we have to prepare for the next grazing season that begins in February,” they say.
“It is not a hobby for us; our lifestyle is where the art is birthed.”
(Written by Manisha V C S)