Art supplies and bamboo chairs filled with scribbles and wooden table captures the corridors of the neighboring gallery in Kesavadasapuram in Thiruvananthapuram, where Karu, a multi -woller art exhibition, is currently. From the outside, an unconscious sound of metal clinking from an exhibition sink with bang horn on the road. The peaceful discussion between the creators and visitors in the hallway works from artists across the country, before a peaceful, and artistic introspections work from artists across the country, spread various media from acrylic to audio-visual on canvas.
The exhibition organized by an practical moving collective kitchen, Untitled Kitchen has 13 artists. “Karu means, or a deep truth. We came in a poem by ‘Atmopadesh Satakam’ (one hundred verses of self-directions), social reformer Shri Narayan Guru,” Vipin Dhanurdharan, one of the members of the Untitled Kitchen.
Another artist in the collective, the showcase cured by Thumbbi has also created a magazine with the same name. It has interacted by several artists since the exhibition on 13 July.
One of the conversation in the Neber Gallery as part of Karu. Photo Credit: Ambin Kodi
Makeings
The idea for the untitled kitchen originated from the earlier work by Wikin, called the sibling kitchen, which began in the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Bienle. “It was inspired by Mishra Bhojanam, a community feast organized by social reformer Sahodaran Ayyappan in Cheri, Kochi in 1917, which included members of all castes to fight untouchability in the region,” says Visin.
Soon, the installation developed in a community promoting the convergence of various talents, which was previously installing temporary kitchens in Ahmedabad and Chennai. “We don’t have a kitchen to prepare food. There is just an ice-breaker of cooking; the real purpose is to bring people together,” Vipin says.
The emphasis is laid on diverse identity and gathering practices, the elements “which will not meet otherwise on the same platform,” Vipin says, highlighting the main objective that combines the sounds of the exhibition together.
Visitors and artists socialization in the corridors of neighboring gallery. Photo Credit: Ambin Kodi
Dress
“We met the kitchen during separate trips with the kitchen by Kama Artists. We met Ambin Kodi in Chennai,” Vipin says about a photographer who has documented the celebration of Maasi Magam by the Irral community, which is one of the oldest and marginalized tribes of Tamil Nadu. The photographer captures the essence of the festival, which occurs on a full moon night in the Tamil month of aunt by the coasts of Mahabalipuram, combining spirituality and resistance by the neglected community.
Anbin Kodi’s work reveals details about the Maasi Magam function by the IRular community: Photo Credit: Ambin Kodi
Irsa Azra, a seven -year -old Ernakulam, is the daughter of a member of the Untitled Kitchen. His work with a colored pencil on paper reflects his curiosity about the world.
Drawing by Irsa Azra on performance for Karu. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A self-affected artist from Palakkad works by Devu Nenmara, using acrylic medium as a laborer. Devu started painting with materials donated by his son during the epidemic, who is an artist.
A canvas is placed on the floor of the gallery, on which people are free to draw, share their ideas through paint.
Open canvas for visitors to participate in Karu. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Arvind Chedan saw the memories of dickystation under the leadership of his father, a mason against the conversion of a Dalit community land in Manakandaval, Kottayam in a parking lot. Establishment by Delhi -based artist uses cement as a medium to express flexibility as a symbol of modern development and capitalism. The mason protested by constructing a statue of BR Ambedkar in a powerful performance of ‘peaceful resistance, navigating political sensitivity’.
Arvind uses cement as a medium to express the memory of the decree of Chedene. , Photo Credit: Ambin Kodi
The exhibition also has powerful text functions. The post -mortem report by Sridula Bhavani, an independent journalist and translator, is a poem about the death of Siddharth JS, a student of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. It further discovers a difference between a memory of a death and “celebration”, and lacks accountability for lost life.
I see Priyanka Sandilia, so I become a series of poems about the identity of the intersection as a tribal woman of the Gond tribe.
I see Priyanka Sandilia, so I become a series of poems about the intersection identity in Karu. Photo Credit: Ambin Kodi
The poem by Abhay Xaxa, ‘I am not your data’, is an outrage against the pseudo-casteistic tendency of the upper-caste, and philanthropist prejudices, which reduces only data or token to display the margins.
With our music, our day, by Saranaraj V from Kardippatti in Madurai, is an audio-visual performance that reflects the life of mines workers from its own village. The video footage of the laborers collides with a rock in the rhythm of a metal hammer in a loop.
As you step out, Aparna Ayyanad’s words wait for you, depicted on a wall, slightly radical above the pillars, “and like all utopia, it will look unknown. But for now, for now, this place is what it should do: try to make a united cameradery.”
The exhibition is in the Needer Art Gallery in Kesavadasapuram, Thiruvananthapuram till 31 August. Karu magazine can be purchased at ₹ 100 per copy. Admission fee.
Published – August 14, 2025 11:00 AM IST
