Standing 21 feet tall, Aku Zeliang’s “Totem of the Unbound” reflects a break from conventional ancestral motifs and reinterprets a form deeply rooted in Naga ritual culture. 

Carved in collaboration with artisan Khaonyie of the Konyak tribe, the work bends tradition without breaking it : the artisan’s inherited muscle-memory is present, but the language is distinctly contemporary. 

A chain of monkeys - oddly intimate, their tails curl along the trunk finding a flow that feels both mischievous and ceremonial, as if instinct itself has claimed the structure.

The pole holds tension between what is customary and what is newly imagined - an object that respects its origins yet refuses to repeat them.