Walking Root Route

In Walking Root Route, I trace an intricate map of connections between origin and movement, where root becomes route. This solo exhibition finds its heart in the banyan tree, a symbol of grounding and growth, its branches eternally stretching towards both sky and earth. Each root descending is a testament to resilience, to life’s cycles of renewal, and to the unseen bonds that bind us to our histories and landscapes.

Drawing on Pune’s ancient banyan trees and the city's transformation, Walking Root Route grapples with the shifting borders of home, identity, and time. I look to the banyan tree as a keeper of stories, as it has borne witness to generations, its roots embodying both anchor and memory. Through mixed-media installations, glass sculptures, and threaded constellations, I invite viewers to journey through spaces that oscillate between the organic and the constructed, between past and present.

The red thread—a constant motif in my work—symbolizes both continuity and migration, capturing moments where identity is stitched into space and memory. In Pune’s banyan trees, I see a reflection of my own experiences as a diasporic artist, where each journey leaves a trace, each place an echo. This exhibition is a space of exploration and reflection, where each viewer can step into the hidden passageways of memory, rooted in the earth yet endlessly branching outward.

In Walking Root Route, I explore what it means to be connected—through nature, through history, and through the quiet endurance of roots and routes that bind us all.

- Monali Meher