Divine in the Contemporary: Nandini Valli Muthiah’s ‘So Far and Henceforth’
cognishift.org COGNISHIFT INSIDER, VOL. 1, ISSUE 04/25
📸 Divine in the Contemporary: Nandini Valli Muthiah’s ‘So Far and Henceforth’
By Dr. Prashant Madanmohan
Editor-in-Chief, Cognishift Insider
A brilliant idea, made visible through light
There are rare moments in art where vision, execution, and emotion align so precisely that the result feels both timeless and urgent. At the Lalit Kala Akademi, such an experience unfolds before viewers through the lens of Nandini Valli Muthiah, a contemporary photographer whose exhibition “So Far and Henceforth” stands as a luminous threshold between mythology and modernity, divinity and the everyday.
Trained at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth, UK, Muthiah brings both technical brilliance and emotional sensitivity to her work. Her photographs are not simply captured — they are composed, like paintings. They resonate with the weight of tradition while daring to reimagine its boundaries.
Gods Walk Among Us — And We See Ourselves in Them
The most striking feature of this collection is its reincarnation of gods — not in celestial settings but in the contemporary human world. We see Krishna in an urban alley, in a fluorescent-lit apartment, in a city car. Yet these are not deconstructions; they are reconsecrations. The divine is not trivialized — it is humanized, perhaps even liberated.
In a world often too cynical to engage with the sacred, Muthiah reintroduces godliness not as myth, but as presence — in grief, glamour, and solitude.
A Painter’s Eye Behind the Camera
What distinguishes Muthiah’s photographic art is its painterly depth. The lighting — soft yet deliberate — carves out an emotional topography. Subjects are staged, but never static. Like classical oil paintings, her frames breathe with suggestion, layering mood, memory, and metaphysical stillness.
The result? Photographs that feel like portals. One does not merely view them — one enters them.
They recall the grandeur of Raja Ravi Varma, the theatricality of Baroque, the silence of Vermeer — yet with distinctly Tamil urban roots. The costuming, posture, and gaze all hint at stories half-told and deeply felt.
Bridging the Visible and the Unseen
“So Far and Henceforth” invites viewers into a liminal space, where gods are not above or beyond us — they are with us, and in us. This is not just mythology reimagined — it is mythos re-embodied. The staged environments are not fabrications; they are revelations, exposing the profound beauty and contradiction of the human condition.
Muthiah’s lens does what the finest art aspires to: it opens a passageway — from the material to the mystical, from the present to the eternal.
Final Reflections
Nandini Valli Muthiah’s work is not merely a photographic project — it is a philosophical meditation on what it means to be human and divine in the same breath. “So Far and Henceforth” is a title that itself suggests temporal transcendence — a journey not just from past to future, but from form to essence.
In a time where art often battles for relevance, her work chooses resonance. And in doing so, it reminds us to look again — not at gods, but at ourselves.
Exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai. Don’t miss the chance to witness a conversation between time, tradition, and truth — through the eye of one of India’s most original contemporary photographers.
