Hashtag#Collective Unveils Kaalam, a Site-Specific Meditation on Time at Kochi’s Gallery OED Courtyard

the Hashtag#Collective has unveiled Kaalam, a large-scale, multisensory installation currently on view at Gallery OED Courtyard, Mattancherry, Kochi. Open to the public until 30 March 2026, the site-specific work invites audiences to reflect on Time as a fractured, accelerated, and deeply contemporary condition shaped by uncertainty, disruption, and lived experience.

Rooted in the Malayalam word kaalam—a term encompassing time, era, destiny, decay, and cosmic rhythm—the installation explores how Time is experienced in the present moment. Rather than positioning time as linear or abstract, Kaalam examines it as unstable and embodied, influenced by global conflict, climate anxiety, technological velocity, and shifting social realities.

At the conceptual core of the installation lies the poem “Kaalam: Time’s ferocious timeline” by Parvathi Nayar, adapted into Malayalam by Saira Biju under the guidance of Rev. Fr. KM George. The poem functions as both a structural and spatial anchor, shaping the installation’s rhythms of repetition, rupture, shadow, illusion, and distortion as it unfolds across the gallery space.

Spanning the Gallery OED Courtyard, Kaalam brings together neon signage, mural and graffiti interventions by Apoorv Dutt (Franklyapoooooorv), suspended acrylic Malayalam letters, conceptual text, and a three-dimensional anamorphic rendering of the word Kaalam. These layered visual and textual elements transform the site into a temporal landscape—oscillating between urgency and stillness, fracture and continuity.

Rather than offering definitive conclusions, Kaalam poses open-ended questions around acceleration, collapse, repetition, and the possibility of imagining alternate temporalities. Time is treated not merely as a concept, but as something felt in the body, embedded in memory, and continually disrupted by contemporary life.

The project is a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort by the Hashtag#Collective—comprising Biju Kuriakose, Parvathi Nayar, Abin Chaudhuri, and Saira Biju—whose practices span architecture, art, design, and public space. This edition marks a significant collaboration with Apoorv Dutt, whose fractured, geometric visual language intensifies the installation’s exploration of instability and rupture. Urban designer and architect VS Sindhura also joins the project as a long-standing collaborator with the Collective.

Kaalam has been made possible with the support of Systopic Laboratories, Sayonara Printers, and Local Hands, with Gallery OED Courtyard serving as venue partner. The installation remains open to the public until 30 March 2026.

Exhibition Details

Exhibition Dates: 21 December 2025 – 30 March 2026
Venue: Gallery OED Courtyard
5/600 Bazaar Road, Mattancherry, Kochi – 682002