Shifting Landscapes
As the Lepcha language fades and the land erodes, Reppandee Lepcha weaves together paper pulp, rice paper, and hemp wool to ask: how do communities retain relevance in a shifting world?
Published 30 December 2025
This has finished
- On view
- 12 December 2025 – 31 March 2026
- Times
- 10AM to 6PM (Mon to Sunday) Till March 31st, 2026
- Part of
- Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26
Where
Vallabhdas Kanji Limited (VKL Warehouse)
Event venue · no 6/951, Bazaar Road, Mattancherry
Shifting Landscapes: Reppandee Lepcha Weaves the Disappearing Language of the Rong People
Artist
Reppandee Lepcha (Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan)
Medium
Paper pulp, Rice paper, Hemp wool, Pugo reep (Oroxylum indicum)
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About
Shifting Landscapes explores the tension between continuity and erasure. The work focuses on the diminishing language and culture of the Rong (Lepcha people) and the deeper loss of their living relationship with land and nature.
From historical displacement to environmental destruction, the community has been pushed into ever-shrinking margins. Now the land itself slips away—echoing the erosion of words, traces, and relationships it once held.
Weaving serves as the skeleton holding everything together. Traditional patterns gather fragmented parts, stitching them into provisional wholes. Scripts written with words once commonly heard are set against the dominance of other languages—highlighting linguistic disappearance while voicing urgent realities.