Tucked between the energy of live sets and the buzz of the food, at Kappa CULTR, architect-turned-artist Nethra Aidith is quietly stopping people in their tracks, not with grand installations or polished sculptures, but with something far more unexpected: pods from the Kadamaram tree (Xylia xylocarpa), rusty scrap, discarded nuts and bolts, and miniature bottles that most people would throw away.

This is the first time Nethra has ever taken her creations out of her bag and placed them on display.

And the response? Overwhelming.

It all began with the Kadamaram tree near her college. “I was fascinated by the shape in its pods,” she says. What most see as dried organic debris, she saw as structure. As potential. As character.

The pod became her base, the protagonist of her tiny, textured world.

From there, she began building personalities around it, taking references from her local surroundings. A twist of thread becomes an eye. A carefully placed ghungroo beads fragment transforms into a mouth. A scrap of rusted metal becomes hair, mood, attitude.

Each piece feels alive. And that’s intentional.

She is already thinking ahead, imagining these gender-neutral characters as stop-motion figures, little animated beings with digital extensions of their personalities. “I can create little features,” she says, smiling. “Give them eyes and a mouth. Give them life.”

Scrap isn’t scrap

Her material of choice isn’t pristine art supplies. It’s rust. Waste. Objects that have lived another life.

“I personally prefer using ‘rusty’ things,” she explains. “Discarded items. Scrap. I wanted to show people that we can take things that are usually thrown away and turn them into something visual.”

At Kappa CULTR, a festival that celebrates culture, music, and contemporary South Indian expression, her work fits seamlessly. The festival grounds are alive with sound and flavor, and Nethra absorbs it all.

She looks at the mood of the food stalls. The rhythm of the DJ sets. The atmosphere of the crowd. 

Then she asks herself: How can I represent this using waste materials? And here’s the best part...That’s her next creation.

For two years, she collected miniature bottles without knowing why. When this exhibition opportunity came, thanks to Pachakuth, who loved her works and that’s how she planned to show her work at Kappa CULTR venue. Those bottles became part of a scene. A tiny bar counter. A radio setup. A miniature world reflecting the festival itself.

It takes her one or two days to complete a single piece.

But what she’s really building is confidence.

Breaking the rules

Nethra comes from an architecture background, a field defined by precision, proportion, and strict adherence to scale.

“With architecture, we have to be very strict,” she says. “Scale and proportion matter.”

But here? “I do all those things.”

She ignores scale. She abandons proportion. She lets instinct lead.

And yet, people understand.

They notice the small details — like tiny unironed clothes sculpted into a character’s posture. They lean closer, trying to decode how a thread becomes an eye or how scrap metal carries emotion.

Children are especially drawn in.

“They keep trying to touch them!” she laughs. Parents hover nervously: “Don’t touch it! Don’t break it!” But the curiosity in those young eyes is exactly what she hopes to spark.

Because her art isn’t about perfection. It isn’t about clean lines or textbook balance. It’s about vision.

A first, and a beginning

Just a year ago, Nethra began experimenting with these forms. Until recently, she barely posted her work online. Confidence was something she struggled with.

“Coming here to Kappa CULTR has completely changed that for me,” she admits.

This is her very first exhibition.

The validation from strangers, people stopping to ask how she made them, where the idea came from, what each character represents has given her the push she needed. She now plans to expand into stop-motion and digital illustration, merging her abstract physical creations with animated storytelling.

Beyond being an artist, she also works in UI and is a DJ. Her process, much like music, is improvisational.

“I just take whatever I have in my hands and start organizing it,” she says. “I sit at my workstation, look at the materials I’ve gathered, and start putting them together.”

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