Muktakeshi stands tall with her hair untamed; Ma Tripura Sundari has rosary beads slipping through her fingers, and Matangi, bathed in emerald green, sits with her veena. They are among the 64 yoginis painted by Beena S Unnikrishnan. Each of them is a powerful female divinity in Hindu Tantric traditions who represent manifestations of the divine feminine energy — Adi Shakti — expressed through unique forms and brought to life on canvas. Their energies aside, they each narrate a different story.
These very stories travelled across 16 cities, journeying for 91 days, covering an expanse of 11 thousand kilometres, as ‘Ekaa: The One - The 64 Yogini Trail’. The yoginis, painted onto canvases, began to take shape in 2015, and were completed over the next five years, with the ancient Yogini temples across the country serving as the artist’s muse. Each yogini narrates different stories, each carrying a touch of energy and power.
“Blessings”, is how Beena describes the trail that has now approached its final chapter, with Chennai hosting the concluding leg of the showcase. Beena refers to this final leg as a homecoming, as a natural way to finish the trail since this is where she began and completed the paintings. “It is a full-circle moment; closing this chapter before moving on to the next,” she says, adding, “It’s (the trail) not me at all; I alone could not have done this. It’s teamwork. It’s a blessing that I was chosen to do something like this.”
Initially, Beena admits to never being confident as an artist, and confesses to replicating Raja Ravi Varma’s works. Calling herself a clueless artist at the time, she says it was through the perspectives of her audiences, art critics, and senior artists that she began to see her own style. Her journey as an artist has also taught her the importance of stepping away from her comfort zone. “That step you take when the whole world says that you cannot do it, that 16 cities is just a dream. When you say you trust the universe, when you trust somebody, and not take everything up by ourselves, that’s what this journey has taught me. People have to step up for wonders to happen,” she says.
When asked about her future projects, she hopes to take the yogini trail beyond India, planning to present it across 64 countries and hopefully to more universities and students. Even if travelling with all the paintings may not always be possible, she says the documentary, ‘Y-64: Whispers of the Unseen’, directed by Jain Joseph, could help take the story to wider audiences.
The documentary, Beena says, was itself unplanned, and what started as simple documentation of the Yogini temples, which were in a dilapidated condition across the country later evolved into a full fledged film, she discloses calling it a transmedia project, spanning from the paintings and her book followed by the documentary and the trail.
Ekaa: The One - The 64 Yogini Trail will be presented in Chennai till April 11 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai. Alongside the exhibition, special preview screenings of the documentary ‘Y-64: Whispers of the Unseen’ will be held at Tagore Theatre Chennai.