EXHIBITION CATALOGUE 2025-2026

Meet the Artist

Baburu Akuru x Jillé

Meet the Artist

Baburu Akuru, an avid researcher and writer on Maldivian culture, folklore, and the supernatural realm, and Jilwaaz Hameed (known as Jille’), a seasoned visual artist whose work explores creativity and cultural expression, chose to collaborate after discovering their shared love for music. Having played and composed songs together, their artistic bond naturally extended into a creative partnership that blends Baburu Akuru’s deep cultural storytelling with Jille’s vivid artistic vision, creating a fusion of Maldivian heritage, emotion, and contemporary expression.

The First Settlers x The First Palms

This series chronicles the survival of the first settlers of Maldives (Dravidians) where a white magician’s ritual transforms deceased mothers’ souls into the first coconut palms. The five paintings trace shipwreck to mystical metamorphosis to civilization, revealing coconuts’ sacred anthropomorphic origins as the foundation of Maldivian culture, sustenance, and identity. Paradise perfected through ancestral sacrifice uniting souls, nature, and survival.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Legend tells how starving early Maldivian settlers (Dravidians) were saved when a white magician buried the dead with herbal mixtures in their mouths, sprouting coconut palms from their skulls— “naashi” means both skull and coconut shell in Dhivehi. This anthropomorphic tree (the tree of life) became the national symbol, providing milk, food, wood, thatch, rope, and all survival essentials for Maldivian civilization.