This multimedia art project explores the seasonal life cycle of the Karnataka mango

A 3D mango, scanned in a grove in Bengaluru, with Kannada and English glyphs by artist Shruti Nagaraj | Photo credit: Special arrangement

Multimedia artist Shruti Nagaraj visited her hometown Bengaluru from London last summer during the mango season. “I had an urge to preserve and document the end of the ephemeral mango season. With ongoing climate change and the rise of artificial intelligence data centers gobbling up water resources, the subsequent effects on the mango ecosystem were unpredictably destabilizing.” This led to the archiving of the environment of the mango tree and its surrounding ecosystem in various media. The ongoing multimedia project is called Maavu and was presented at the Saatchi Gallery in London as an AR experience during the British Art Fair last year.

Artist Shruti Nagaraj | Photo credit: Special arrangement

“Being a Kannadiga in Bengaluru, I always wanted and have always wanted to document and incorporate the city into my creative practice,” says the London-based artist, who has exhibited her work in France and the UK. Maavu is a long-term multimedia archive documenting vanishing mango varieties, accompanied by layers of sounds from Bengaluru’s mango groves, trade, waste and ripening. “Watching the value of mangoes decline at the end of the season in the groves of Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) in North Bengaluru, when tonnes of produce are thrown away, highlights the impact on ecological loss and language, while preserving the life of a much-anticipated fruit that is central to culture and community.”

Digital reality

The multimedia pieces range from photos in manga sets and markets to ASCII-inspired typography on 3D scans of the manga and sound clips from the sets. At the British Art Fair at London’s Saatchi Gallery, the project was presented as an AR exhibition that encouraged guests to experience it through their phones. “I created a fragmented 3D scan of a mango tree and various manga were used to map these sounds and oral histories. I later developed them into augmented reality, layering sound, visuals and interactive elements to create an immersive experience that takes you through the life cycle of a manga and invites you to listen deeply to public spaces, memory and what remains when cities change.” The aim is to preserve the cultural, ecological and sensory presence of the fruit in Bengaluru’s groves and people.

Collage from a project called Mango Man | Photo credit: Shruti Nagaraj

On the field

For the project, Shruti did research in and around Bengaluru. “Through recordings from nearby mango groves, interviews with mango vendors, 3D scanning (photogrammetry), type design and photography, I documented the mango groves at GKVK Mango Groves in North Bengaluru and the mango markets in Jayamahal, collecting market and environmental noise.”

With climate factors such as El Niño affecting mango showers, rising temperatures and delayed monsoon rains, many of the yields of fruit-bearing trees may go to waste.

“This is something I started noticing last year. I plan to expand this manga digitization to incorporate real-time weather data and botanical data and make it accessible through language and design.” Shruti adds that she is looking forward to bringing the project to India soon once she gets the funding. “It’s a priority to bring these immersive manga back to the city and to the people back home.”

To view Shruti’s work visit www.shrutinagaraj.net/maavu

Published – 14 Jul 2026 18:39 IST