Inspired by the mythologies of Kali Ma, the Hindu Goddess of death, time, and change and moths viewed as “angels of death” by ancient cultures all over the world, Manik Raj Nakra has combined the two mythologies into what the artist calls “Kali Moths." The Kali Moths explore ritual, lust, mortality, and ceremony.

Moth iconography has been found on old world artifacts and ancient ruins to represent change, transformation, and death.

Kali Ma is historically depicted with blue or black skin as the darkness from which the universe is born. Other characteristics include fangs, long tongue, 4 arms, and a garland of human heads.

In Hindu Mythology, Kali is also often summoned as personified wrath and embodied fury. In her most famous story, she is called upon to defeat a demon who multiplies every time a drop of its blood hits the ground. She uses her sword to sever the demon’s head and unfurls her long tongue to catch any spilled blood. 

She is revered and worshipped as a Goddess of both creation and destruction. In western pop culture, Kali Ma is most famously depicted as the goddess for the cannibalistic cult in the film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.

The collage technique utilized in these artworks on handmade paper draws upon western artistic traditions of early xeroxed cut & paste style punk flyers and zines and the South Asian history of wood block printing as a way to reflect the artists own experience of being a first generation Indian American.