Main Idea

A project exploring natural dying in the Amazon, using colours from the land and also using inspiration from the space around to reflect the colours. Seeing the relation between colour and space.

Residency expansion

Residency expansion in Bolivia in the Amazon jungle. I took the few months on the residency in Peru into practice.

The project in the Amazon was based on experience and observation. Creating in the jungle, having to attune to it and listen. To live the work in the space and to see how it reflects. To see how the life reflects to us and to see what we can do with it. 

This project was a very big turning point for me, it is the first project that combines the elements of inspiration, space and conceptual practice in one. I found this to be the start of a large body of work I will be creating in the London which connects all the elements of this project.

Elements of the nature

To begin this exploration of observation and experimentation in the jungle it all started with using a series of natural pigments from the local land to see which colours best reflect the space.

Having built relations with the local people, I was lucky to find a woman with an amazing source of natural pigments that she makes all on her own. I took time to learn with here and understand her process. As a thank you and a mutual exchange I bought 13 of her colours and these were what I used for this experimentation.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the project came from wanted to be in a place for a sufficient amount of time, submerged in its land, nature, culture and people. To a point where I am able to transfer what I am experiencing on a visual, sensory and internal level into something material where other people are able to have similar experiences and insights than me without being directly in this space.

Intention

Transporting a time, place, space and feeling into something material that can travel and touch people in a different time, place and space.

The experiment

It was a simple experiment, I simply cut 13 similar sized pieces of silk. Got a bunch of paintbrushes, some water and a lovely rock to perch on.

I trialed each colour one at a time, dipping the paint brush into water, dipping the brush then into pigment, applying it to the silk and adding some extra water to distribute the pigment evenly across the surface of the fabric.

It was a fascinating the process to watch the pigments change colour and to have unexpected surprises and results as we went along.

Element of surprise

This is something i particularly enjoy when working with nature, the element of surprise is the element in which we cannot plan for, we cannot control and we have to surrender to.

This practice is very interesting because it pushes us out of the conditioned human desire of wanting to control situations and outcomes to our benefit and leaves the larger part of destiny down to nature. Which generally has a much better outcome aligned with greater benefits but because we as humans cannot comprehend something beyond our control, it is difficult to see the plan that is much better than our own in those moments.

Why is working in nature so important

What i find over and over again from going into nature, wanting to work with and around her, is that there is so much she can teach us. So much in nature that can be reflected to us in the simplest of ways. In how to be, how to move, how to grow, how to support each other, how things manifest etc…

The list could go on in the ways in which she teaches. But the most profound one for me is the realisation that we can only really learn through what we are given to observe, that being ourselves, friends, family, the world etc but all of these things can be tampered with through conditioning and desire.

The only thing that cannot be tampered with, altered and changed to comply with the human desire and want is nature. No matter what we do her level of coherency is consistent, we can always rely on her to function in the way that she does naturally. We can observe how flowers, plants and animals align intuitively with nature and they move within this web of connection. The way we can observe these elements and learn on a deep level is through the trust that these things come from a pure source, move with a pure source and cannot be molded to the desire of humanity and conditioning.

From observing these natural elements we can learn so much, how to love, how to be, how to exist, how to co-exist, how to be independent, how to move with the seasons, the changes, to let go, to welcome in, to adapt, to listen, to talk.

The process

After painting each silk with a pigment, attaching each piece to a bamboo stick to dry and leaving them for a very short time. I was then able to use this experiment to take a reference of which colours best align and reflect the space I was in.

I would use the strips of colour and simply hold them to the surround space, identifying which colours best reflect, combine, connect and pop in the surrounding space.

Identification

By doing this I was able to identify the colour pallet of the jungle, not only on a purely observational basis but also on a base of which colours represent the energy, the feeling, the mystery, the danger, the animals, the foods, the people etc.

Through these colours I was able to see colours beyond the visible eye, colours that resent a taste, a flavour and essence of a place.

Expansion

In doing this, by getting a deeper understand and feeling of the space through a visual language I wanted to then expand this project in using these colours together with form. To see which forms appear in the same mystical way that tell the visual story of the Amazon and the visual that is beyond the perceivable eye.

To see that what can be reflected to us is not always in relation to what we can directly see, but also to what we feel, experience, pick up on and observe.