Shanvin Sixtous (b. 1979) is the proprietor of Vinton Engineering, an architectural metalworks firm based in Kochi. Founded in 2000 as an extension of the family-run Sixto & Co., the company has evolved from shipyard fabrication toward specialised architectural metalwork, producing bespoke components for large-scale projects across India. Under Shanvin’s leadership, Vinton Engineering has developed a reputation for precision craftsmanship, design-driven fabrication, and reliable project execution.
Shanvin Sixtous’s mixed-media installation uses steel and multi-screen videos to explore the hull as both material and metaphor within Kochi’s amphibious landscape. The hull, always partly submerged, embodies movement, containment and the continuous negotiation between land and water. It bears the imprints of labour and migration, carrying memories of journeys both chosen and coerced. Its polished interiors and corroded exteriors map historic routes of trade and belief, revealing tensions between visibility and concealment, memory and erasure.
Bringing the geographies of the Mediterranean, Gaza, the Aegean and the Bay of Bengal into dialogue, In, Between reflects ongoing displacement shaped by overlapping histories of commerce and conflict. Rather than resolve these currents, the work lingers in uncertainty, suggesting an amphibian mode of existence that is adaptive, interdependent, and alert to fragile, shifting grounds.
Image: Shanvin Sixtous, In, Between (2025). Site-specific installation, steel, multiscreen video projections and sound. Dimensions variable. Fabrication by Vinton Engineering. Installation view of Amphibian Aesthetics at the Ishara House, Kochi, Kerala, 2025-26. Photography by Biju Ibrahim
