ReRooted Program 3
Let’s be Eco-Logical!!
The first Word of the title,
posits as a starting point of a journey
“Let’s” has a certain ring to it
it is playful
and hopeful at the same time,
it invites
and cajoles
eggs you on to participate,
to create
to contribute...
to come together
for an array of possibilities—
a dialogue
new beginnings
perspectives to see from
or looking beyond
outward and simultaneously within
cracking the construed archaic way and narratives open for inquiry
September 2024–January 2025, Arbeit Studios, Hackney Wick, London
Let's be Eco-Logical !
ReRooted Program
Created by Arbeit Studios and supported by LLDC, ReRooted Program 3 focused on ecology, sustainability, and the public sphere. The award comprised four key strands:
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A four-month artist residency in the charming red container studio space.
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A commissioned artwork for installation in the North Garden, Hackney Wick.
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A series of three socially engaged workshops.
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A month-long solo exhibition at the Garden Gallery.
‘Let’s be Eco-Logical!’
​
I developed a project grounded in the public sphere, where four socially engaged workshops became the conceptual and practical foundation for the final art commission.
At the heart of the project was a large-scale participatory artwork: 108 eco-dyed prayer flags, created to evoke ecological and universal harmony. Inspired by the fluttering Buddhist prayer flags seen across the Himalayan landscape—carried by the wind as symbols of peace, compassion, and hope—our version reimagined this tradition with an environmental lens.
Through four workshops, participants co-created these vibrant flags, each inscribed with personal reflections, intentions, and wishes for the well-being of the land, community, and environment.
The workshops were intentionally collaborative, dialogical, and skill-sharing in nature. They encouraged collective learning and unlearning, inviting participants to reflect on their relationship with the natural world and reconsider their daily practices in light of ecological interconnectedness.
The ReRooted program enabled me to engage with the world through the lens of indigenous South Asian/Indian philosophies of oneness and universality, valid not only to the living, breathing beings but also the non-living.
Each one on this planet, in the universe, in the Milky Way, and beyond—human, non-human, living, non-living, and everything in between—has a right and a logical reason to be where they are.
All things bright or ugly, all creatures great and small.
‘But then you must acknowledge among the producers every agent that contributes in one way or another to the formation of the environment: human beings certainly, but also animals of virtually every other kind, as well as plants and fungi, the wind and rain, glaciers, rivers, and the ocean.’ -Tim Ingold,
Workshop 1: Eco-Dyeing from the Kitchen waste
Workshop 2: Eco-Printing
Workshop 3: Soni-Jamming & Mono-Printing
Workshop 4: Eco dying with Indigo and Cochineal
