A heap of seeds sits in the middle of an open hall. Other seemingly unremarkable artefacts—bottles, a bamboo scaffolding, cotton balls and even tubers—surround the seeds. If one listens closely, one will hear faint singing coming from somewhere in the middle of the hall, but it's hard to make out the words. These installations and displays —questioning where the everyday objects we use come from, who makes them and how they affect and are affected by the climate crisis—formed the evocative second edition of Sustaina, With each seed we sing, which was on view at STIR gallery from February 1 – 16, 2025.

The initiative, presented by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Indian artist duo Thukral & Tagra, introduced projects that raise awareness about climate action and sustainability. At its onset, the goal was simple enough—finding a meaningful way to engage in conversations about sustainability in our lives in an accessible manner, blending art, science and climate to look at material-based practices and solutions. Instead of focusing on data sets and demographics, the intention was to expand the discussion around climate by involving everyone, not just the policymakers or scientists.

"As creators, we firmly believe in the power of materials to channel a sensorium of touch, smell, sound and vision as paths to climate awareness and retention for the current and future generations," the duo has previously noted about the first edition of Sustaina. Giving a voice to grassroots initiatives through material-led approaches in an exhibition that is part installation, part rallying cry for action and realignment is just as strong with the second edition as it was for the first, Ears to the Ground, Heart to the Horizon. This year's showcase centred the voices of three Sustaina Fellows. These artists and activists, selected by Thukral & Tagra and Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi (the curators), received mentorship, access to the resources of CEEW, a production budget of INR 1 lakh and an honorarium of INR 50,000. The heap of seeds, specifically eight different types of millets, in the centre of the gallery, was an installation by fellow Saraswathi Malluvalasa, founder of the Arogya Millet Sisters network.

The work urged visitors to reconsider the shift in farming culture from millets to cash crops like rice and wheat and to rethink what they consume. Through her work as a secretary at the Society for Awareness and Betterment of Agricultural Livelihoods in Andhra Pradesh (SABALA), Malluvalasa has rejuvenated millet cultivation across 1500 acres in 50 villages, advocating for its inclusion in distribution systems to enhance nutrition and food security. Streaming from the heap, we hear folk songs that were central to mobilising women into joining the millet movement. As Thukral & Tagra mention in conversation with STIR, through song, all of the projects were meant to be in dialogue with each other.

Two other projects considered food and the farming industry: New Delhi-based filmmaker Shaz Syed's Stubble – The Farmer's Bane (2022 – 23) and food-focused collective Edible Issues' Roots to Resilience (2023 – ongoing). Syed's short documentary, supported by The British Academy and Keele University, told the stories of farmers of Punjab in an attempt to shift mainstream perspectives on their lives. Concentrated on a small region, the documentary examined how a web of agricultural policies has, over the years, adversely affected the land's ecology. Similarly, Roots to Resilience looked at tuber crops and the communities that cultivate them. The installation, featuring cyanotype drawings and different kinds of tubers, explored the potential of over 100 tuber varieties in India, illustrating the collective's ongoing work in documenting recipes and culinary traditions. Their work celebrates the resilient crops we use and the communities who grow them to instigate conversations on food security.

At the core of Sustaina's mission are these questions: If we could all contribute to action against the climate crisis, what might we do? How might we look at our lives differently? What habits could we change or re-examine? An insistence on the small matters that can shift the tide was continued in the showcase with the work of the two other fellows. Shubhi Sachan's Material Library of India (2025) looked at the critical issue of waste segregation with an interactive installation. The work hoped to question consumption and throwaway culture. The third fellow, Poludas Nagendra Satish, focused on cotton with his ongoing initiative, Kora Design Collective, looking at reviving traditional hand spinning and weaving practices to promote sustainable design. For Sustaina, he documented his process while creating fabrics, highlighting his collaboration with farmer communities across India.

The second edition of the exhibition also included a new version of Climate Recipes focused on Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana region by artist Srinivas Mangipudi with Mopidevi. They presented aphorisms that urged readers to renegotiate their engagement with the natural world. For instance, some of the ‘recipes’ printed on bricks read, ‘Grasslands are not wastelands’ or ‘Natural farming is the natural thing to do’ or asked, 'If EV is the answer, what was the question?' Mangipudi and Mopidevi hope that this archive of ‘intergenerational wisdom’ highlighting the networks between people, environments and climates will serve as a worthy guide to conversations with those committed to working on these issues.

Other projects that highlighted Sustaina’s focus on community-led work were interdisciplinary art collective Chander Haat's Story of a Canal (2022 – ongoing), Sheshadev Sagria's A being between worm clod and clods (2024) and Harjit Kaur's The Pink E-auto project (2025). For Story of a Canal, Chander Haat presented a multimedia installation that combined video, visual art, oral histories and soundscapes within a bamboo scaffolding that represents a community space. The video narrated the significance of a canal that runs through the Sarsuna region in Kolkata and juxtaposed reports of how the khal (canal in Bengali) faces threats due to urbanisation, invasive plant species and pollution.

Conversely, Odisha-based printmaker Sagria presented a different perspective on ‘community’. Showcasing drawings from an earthworm's perspective, the work was a dialogue between the human and the more than human, thinking through how earthworms are vital parts of our ecology. Finally, the pink E-auto outside the gallery where the works were displayed was perhaps the most obvious reminder of the everyday negotiations we can take part in to practice care towards planetary entities.

It is, after all, these everyday stories of community, land, biodiversity and climate that hold the urgent themes of the exhibition afloat. As one leaves the gallery, visitors are invited to carry a seed away with them. A seed has the potential to grow, to become something more. One seed can sustain entire civilisations. So, let the seeds sing.