At what point does a sculpture stop becoming a sculpture and become Goddess?" Harsha Vinay, director of the Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi, tells us. Vinay's inquiry into the intersection between art and rituals can, to some extent, be traced back to his days as a student in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where he was pursuing a Masters's degree in Arts and Aesthetics.

Having worked at museums and art establishments for the past six years, Vinay’s interaction with living traditions materialised in many ways, and became more layered, as the years passed. For instance, while researching for projects during his stint as the associate curator at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru, Vinay found himself travelling through the Malabar Coast, where he discovered many odd and fascinating sub-cultures.