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நகவெட்டி nagavetti

Challenging medicalized notions of queer transitioning, anu’s sound installation explores transwomanhood through self-made instruments, nail-cutting, and defretted guitars.

Published 31 December 2025

This has finished

On view
12 December 2025 – 31 March 2026
Times
10AM to 6PM (Mon to Sunday) Till March 31st, 2026
Part of
Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26

Where

Aspinwall House

Event venue · Calvetty Road, Fort Kochi

You’ve just missed it — take it home anyway

The 2025–26 Biennale ended on 31 March 2026. The next is expected around December 2027. We made a book of all 72 exhibits, venue by venue, with the photographs — 76 pages, 9 MB.

We email you the book. Nothing else.

Through actions like cutting and shaping my nails and removing the frets of my guitar, I situate myself within a transwomanhood that sounds and lives in worlds otherwise unattainable.

Artists

அணு anu (Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore)

Medium

Acrylic and charcoal on raw canvas, watercolor and charcoal on paper, fishing nets, found wooden boat, bicycle, fabric

A collection of electronic devices and printed materials rests on a purple fabric surface beneath a blue tarp. On the left, an older model CRT monitor displays a blue-toned image of a person sitting. To its right, a small black laptop sits open with a dark screen. Between them are a remote control, a small black box with cables, and a tangle of wires. Scattered across the fabric in front of the devices are several booklets, pamphlets, and loose sheets of paper in various colors including pink, yellow, and white, some featuring images and text layouts. One item shows a close-up of a computer mouse on its cover.

About

நகவெட்டி [nagavetti] challenges medicalized notions of queer transitioning, shifting the focus to transitions constructed through personal practices and objects.

This installation and sound-activation setup features self-made sound-making instruments that highlight a relationship to transition mediated through technological sound production. The piece unfolds in two parts: first, the installation is experienced with sound generated by moving image work alongside a generative sound program.

Second, the artist performs a ‘sonic summoning,’ activating sound-instrument components. Through actions like cutting nails and removing guitar frets using those same tools, anu situates herself within a transwomanhood that sounds and lives in worlds otherwise unattainable by a standard fretted guitar or a normatively nailed person.