Nature Inside Out

About

This workshop focuses on our engagement with nature as we aim to better understand our shared resources and psychological functions in face of current times. As we work towards this ambition, participants are asked to pause and observe their surroundings, sensitizing themselves to the environment around. The goal of this session is to bring to awareness some of nature's core principles and our interconnectedness with them, for instance wisdom revealed by self-similar patterns called the fractals, the beauty in chaos and the oneness reflected in the elemental matter that connects us all. These precepts are offered as three different exercises inspired by techniques of art-making that have existed for over thousands of years, across various cultures and geographies, such as working with repetition, doodling with natural mediums and playing with natural elements to make art. For each of these activities, relevant examples from history and artworks that use these techniques are shared. Participants are then given time for self-exploration. About the artist: Gunjan Kumar is an artist based in Chicago originally from Punjab, India. She has spent many years traveling through India and other countries in South Asia, observing age-old practices in art particularly in textiles and handmade indigenous crafts, prehistoric paintings, and other tribal arts. All these experiences form the undertone of her art practice. Her process involves ground earth and organic matter used as core mediums, applied on natural surfaces with techniques inspired by traditional methods.

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