Mengu Ao

Mengu Ao, a seasoned crop duster pilot, lives high above the Nagaland terraced paddies, where he has spent decades ensuring the health of local crops. His aviation career began as a young man full of curiosity and resolve, evidenced by his 300-mile walk to attend the funeral of a stranger—driven purely by a shared link as fellow aviators. Now, at 78, scraping paint from wing struts and granary eaves fuels his new fascination with the way materials age and change, fueling his visual art made exclusively under the glow of candlelight or the fading hues of sunrise.