Your questions are valid: is it a quiet, intimate setting that is beguilingly beautiful or is it defiantly avant-garde? Either way, the Church of Palm’s allure is undeniable. The installation marks NorBlack NorWhite’s debut at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale through AMMA Studios—the fashion label’s newly launched, art-focused sibling. For Mriga Kapadia and Amrit Kumar’s creative spirit, who have spent the last 16 years cultivating a distinct identity by imaginatively blurring the lines between textile, orchestrated storytelling and indie performance, this feels like a natural extension of their creative spirit.
‘AMMA’ is play on their names, which simultaneously invokes the idea of the mother—source of all creation and the gravitas she embodies.
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The Church of Palm’s charm lies in the otherworldly, the eccentric and the bizarre, where the humble palm tree takes centre stage as a divine entity waiting to be worshipped. The sculptural palm, rendered in metal and stone, is veiled by a fishing net hand-dyed in colours of the sun: ochre and moody red. The mesh flows elegantly downward, from an 18-foot-high ceiling, in a conical form. Plastic chairs—unmistakably desi—are stacked in rows and draped in a tie-dyed gradient fabric. They gather in the nave like a sombre congregation. A fluid, ethereal soundtrack by Colombian-Canadian singer, Lido Pimienta fills the room, enmeshing the boundaries between art and ritual.
The experience borders on the theatrical, yet its sanctuary-esque ambiance will probably leave the viewer grounded.
The Church of Palm is AMMA Studios’ way of paying homage to the everyday: objects found in abundance are often overlooked, let alone revered. The coconut palm ubiquitous to Kerala, for instance, has the tendency to fade into Kochi’s lush foliage and risks invisibility. It is lifted from its natural context, placed on a pedestal and repositioned in a sacred light. “We wanted to honour the coconut tree that is indigenous to Kerala,” explains Kapadia. “It’s about honouring what she offers—food, shelter, beauty. There are millions of other things she provides, physically and metaphorically as well.”
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Adds Kumar, “It’s the same with the everyday plastic chair,” referencing the durable and faintly nostalgic staple of Indian gatherings. “We wanted to move it away from its traditional identity— the tentwalas’ wedding chairs covered in black, red or white satin—and elevate it by making it beautiful. We started playing with tie-dye and eventually gave it a gradient colour form.”
NBNW is no stranger to staging immersive tableaux. Its first store in Delhi, for instance, featured a hand-embroidered tapestry bearing an illustration by Toronto-based artist, Rajni Perera, while artist Jasjyot Singh sketched live in a corner. A collaboration with sportswear giant NIKE, featuring women strutting in vivid bandhani athletic wear, proved to be culturally and commercially resonant. The duo also gave a Bombay rickshaw a technicolour makeover through Taxi Fabric, a Mumbai-based project that reimagines taxi interiors in vibrant printed textiles.
In Kochi, the installation is located in Mattancherry’s historic Jew Town. “Next to us there is a synagogue and you can hear the call of prayer from the mosques,” Kapadia says gesturing to Kochi’s layered and diverse religious landscape.
In that context, the Church of Palm becomes as a secular meditation on reverence. Suggesting the architecture of an altar, the nickel-plated tree rises from rose quartz and glows in golden afternoon light. It is mounted on a 360-degree reflective sound pedestal in chrome, designed by artist Akash Das. In this setting, the palm transforms into an object of devotion, contemplation and gratitude. It’s fragile and simultaneously monumental. “We’re trying to recreate the idea of an altar and what it could mean to people,” says Kapadia. “It’s meant to feel otherworldly.”
Anyone who has visited the Kochi-Muziris Biennale will witness the frantic pace of the city during this time – thronging crowds, swollen streets, vehicular cacophony. Against this backdrop, the Church of Palm emerges as a space of reprieve. It offers a room for reflection, introspection, reconciliation, belonging, connection. “As soon as visitors enter the space, there is an ease in their body language,” observes Kapadia. “We’ve had visitors sitting down on the ground and spending time there or standing at the very back and just taking it all in. Some people even circled around the altar.”
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Like NBNW, AMMA Studios’ identity is rooted in celebrating hyper-local materials and techniques. The fishing net was sourced from the by-lanes of Mumbai’s bustling Bhendi Bazaar. It was further meticulously extended by hand by local fishermen in Kochi. The fabric cloaking the chairs was dip-dyed by artisans in Delhi, and the palm sculpture was hand-crafted in Jaipur by artist Kichu Dandiya. Outside the room, the ‘Church of Palm’ has been hand-painted in English and Malayalam by Kochi-based sign painters.
In essence, the Church of Palm is a tapestry of Indian regions, converging into a single vulnerable space.
Through AMMA Studios, Kapadia and Kumar are expanding their creative vocabulary into the contemporary art space. Their multi-disciplinary work encompasses tapestries, sculptures, spatial design and installations. “With AMMA, we don’t want any limitations,” Kapadia says. “There are so many ideas we can’t execute within the framework of NorBlack NorWhite. This feels like a playground for us.” For now, Kumar adds, the focus is simply on the making, experimenting and expressing their ideas in new ways and leaning further into the experiential, collaborative impulse that has long anchored their work.
