
The soul of creativity transcends canvas. It can be found in different mediums too — from canvas to fabrics. The art exhibition ‘The Earth My Home’ at Gallery Art Positive is a unique display where everything — from the bristles of the brushes to paints are made from the forest produce found in the Himalayan jungles. The exhibition is curated by Georgina Maddox and facilitated by wild art practitioner Bettina Van Haeften. It has artists from Delhi, Australia, and Himachal Pradesh including Pooja Hada, Alka Mathur, Shalini Ghosh, Jasmeet Khurana, Sharmila Gupta, Nishi Jauhar, and Ritu-Ngapnon Varuni.
Conceiving the idea
The display is a result of the artists’ first residential ‘Natural Art Course’ that they attended last year in June at the Mountain-Wind campus, a creative learning hub in Bhuira village of Himachal Pradesh run by Varuni. At that time, the course was facilitated by Haeften who specialises in wild art from Australia. She introduced the concept of wild art (that uses natural materials) and eco-dyeing with Shibori (a Japanese manual resist dyeing technique which produces patterns on fabrics) during the course.
For Haeften, wild art is less about certain techniques and more a way of life. “I am very fortunate that I grew up living close to nature, in a little timber chalet in the pine forests on the west coast of France. Most of what I practice is the result of many years of trial and error, testing, investigating, inventing, and learning by doing,” she says, adding that wild art is a concept that honours the creative ingenuity of ancestors. “Our ancestors’ intimate knowledge of the landscape and the natural world gave them everything they needed to build their entire material culture by hand. Making your own tools and processing materials for doing so is unbelievably satisfying and profound. It deepens our knowledge and relationship to our bioregion.”
Tools from nature
During the course, Haeften helped the artists produce artworks on natural calico fabric, using natural pigments and self-made brushes. Mathur, an artist who has been experimenting with natural dyes shares that all the artists have walked around the campus at Bhuira to gather materials. “We went looking for grasses, pine bristles, sticks, leaves, jute strings to make brushes. Further, onion skin, tea, henna, tree bark, and turmeric were used to make dye baths. Egg binder was added to make paints,” she tells TMS. For the Shibori pieces, the artists used different methods of tying on cotton calico cloth which were immersed in different dye baths to get rich hues.
For Hada, who had never tried her hands with fabrics and could not even “fathom” making her own pigments and brushes, the experience deepened her connection with nature. “I got to create a 16-piece installation in an abstract style with natural pigments with the use of twigs and my finger being the tool. Calmness and inner healing were my biggest takeaways and my works clearly reflect that,” she says.
Each of the artworks professes that taking from nature can be done in a “non-intrusive manner” as pointed out by Maddox. “All the materials were collected from the forest floor, nothing was plucked or cut and even the boiling of the dye was done on rocket stoves that are environmentally friendly.” The exhibition is not only unique in its display but is “highly contextual” given the global climate problems that we are dealing with. “Delhi being the capital of the country and an important art center is a good venue to host the exhibition to expose people to wild art and natural paints. It’s to make people aware of their environment, get involved in its preservation and enjoy the works created while engaging with nature,” Maddox adds.
‘The Earth My Home’ is on till today at Gallery Art Positive, Lado Sarai from 11am onwards