DIVINE CONCH

Entering through the exhibition door, you are greeted by a body of water holding ships from across the globe. Spirits from the Daydream Universe come to this space to pay respects to this story. As we emerge through the portal, we come across artifacts which appear to be scattered throughout the island. Ruins of an old temple perhaps?

When passing through the Jiagia gallery door, you are transported to this island where an ancient ruined structure used to sit. After hearing about the story from dreamscape locals, Jiagia worked to re-create an artifact depicting this story. As we move up the hill, notice the elephant and horse sculptures. The horse resides on a pillar, while the elephant appears to be on the remains of what once was its own pillar.

Local legends that she helped clear the seas from this very spot where the pedestal now lies. To this day, visitors come from all over the universes to visit this holy site. Similar to when viewing some Hindu deities, you are able walk around to pay respects. Sailors and citizens alike visit this location to pay their respects.

This painting takes place in the Daydream Universe, a world created when the central woman closes her eyes and prays for the safe return of the village fishermen. Hindu and Greek deities appear around her, not to blend their stories but to show a shared human need for protection, prosperity, and meaning. Vishnu rises with his serpent, conch, and lotus. Gajalakshmi spills abundance through elephants and falling coins. Triton and Poseidon churn the ocean with their shells. In the waves, sailors battle sea creatures in waters that represent both danger and possibility. Every detail—from the trade scenes on Lakshmi’s dress to the painted eyes on the Greek ships—reflects the woman’s wish for those she loves to leave, endure, and return home safely. The composition spirals like a dream, shaped by her thoughts, fears, memories, and the stories she turns to for comfort.

The work also stands at the meeting point of mythology and memory, reclaiming imagination from the distortions of colonial history. European Orientalism often framed Greek thought as rational and ideal while dismissing Indian mythology as excessive or superstitious. This hierarchy, reinforced by colonial administrators and Enlightenment scholars, shaped how cultures were valued. By placing these traditions side by side with equal emphasis, the painting rejects that hierarchy and resists being seen as ethnographic or exotic. Myth becomes a way to reflect, to repair, and to imagine again. The piece offers a world where knowledge is not ranked or limited to one tradition, but shared across many—where different ways of understanding the sacred can coexist without one diminishing the other.

The relic looks out over the water as she blows the conch, as if still calling out to the gods to protect the sailors of this world, and the next.