Beneath the Green Canopy

The one who planted the tree is gone, the shade remains.

Tulu culture, rooted in coastal Karnataka, is eroding fast. Objects that once shaped everyday life, like cradles, ladles and ritual knives, are being replaced or forgotten. The museum held a collection of them, but no way to make them speak to younger visitors.

We followed a single plant, the coconut palm, through ten objects and ten stages of life: from the three-eyed coconut shell used for a baby's ritual bath to the coconut-shell lamp lit for the dead. It was our first project with an anthropology museum.

Designing with what was there

We started with complex, ornamental illustrations and simplified them three times, until they echoed kavi, the red-oxide floor art people on the coast recognise instantly. Brian's illustrations became the visual language for everything: panels, the app and the activity book.

The terracotta-brick plinths came out of a material test, not a drawing. Bricks were cheap, local, reusable and modular, so we could adjust heights on site until each composition felt right. When the venue changed mid-project to a narrower room with a red-oxide floor, we redrew the layout, covered the built-in shelves with fabric, and used light to create zones.

Each object became a small tableau: the ceremonial knife with bells against a folded silk saree, the spice container surrounded by coriander, cumin and fenugreek you could smell, the death lamp glowing in a darkened corner. Everything was bilingual, so Kannada speakers were the primary audience, not an afterthought.

CREDITS & SUPPORT

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