A poetic steel installation that transforms love into a visual, intellectual, and infinite experience.
A poetic steel installation that transforms love into a visual, intellectual, and infinite experience.
Can love, in all its forms, be expressed through a single design? The Art Museum of Love in Kodakara, Kerala, unveiled a remarkable new addition to its growing collection dedicated to the theme of love. Titled Eleven Love Installation, this large steel sculpture by noted artist Unni Pulikkal S is a rare exploration of love’s multiplicity through design, symbolism, and philosophy.
At first sight, the sculpture seems like an abstract interplay of lines, letters, and geometric forms. But a closer look reveals its extraordinary essence: the word LOVE can be read in eleven different ways directly from the same design, and in 256 subtle variations indirectly. These multiple readings are no accident—they are embedded by the artist as a metaphor for the infinite ways love can be felt and understood.
Just as love takes on new meanings depending on who feels it, how it is expressed, or in what cultural context it is situated, the installation invites each visitor to discover a unique interpretation. Furthermore, 256 refers to the number of possible values of each primary colour in the world of digital imaging, adding another layer of interpretation with respect to the infinite ways in which love is felt, expressed, and represented.
Many ways of reading love
Adding another layer of subtlety, the design incorporates three male symbols and one female symbol cryptically. These symbols are not overt or decorative; instead, they are interwoven within the geometry of the piece, visible only to the observant eye. Their presence speaks to gender duality, the forces of attraction, and the balance between masculine and feminine energies. By embedding them quietly, the artist suggests that these dynamics—while central to the experience of love and life—are often hidden, unspoken, or quietly felt rather than declared outright.|
Conceptually, the work draws inspiration from Robert Indiana’s iconic 1970 LOVE sculpture, which transformed a simple four-letter word into a global cultural emblem. Yet while Indiana’s work focused on the power of the word itself, Pulikkal’s Eleven Love expands the idea into a more complex exploration. By making the word LOVE legible in multiple forms, he underscores its shifting, plural nature: love is never just one thing, never bound to a single definition. It is personal and universal, visible and hidden, singular and infinite.
From concept to sculpture
The journey of this creation began in 2024, when Pulikkal first conceptualised the design as part of his ongoing artistic inquiry into the visual and philosophical possibilities of love. The earliest manifestation appeared as a cyanotype print on archival paper in 2025, emphasizing the work’s connection to both tradition and experimentation in photography. Later that year, the design was transformed into its first large-scale, steel-based sculptural installation, permanently installed at the Art Museum of Love.
Few works of contemporary art manage to balance playfulness and depth, curiosity and answer, simplicity and intricacy, with such elegance. As a permanent installation, it offers endless opportunities for rediscovery: no matter how many times one views it, there is always a new angle, a new possibility, or a new insight waiting to be revealed. The sculpture was unveiled by the Saneesh Kumar Joseph, MLA, Chalakkudy.