Vertical Garden by Aastha Dutta

Urbanisation has supplanted our most valuable natural resources, such as forests, plants, and trees. It's all about how contemporary life has influenced our perception of nature, and how that has spread from Mother Earth's lap to the walls of our homes. During my ten-year stay in Panipat, Haryana, I witnessed the green-yellow field of mustards and paddy fields on the left and the little green woodland on the right of the road transform into massive cubes of orange and grey buildings and hotels. The forest was cleared to make way for the structures, leaving all the creatures, such as deer, peacocks, and monkeys, homeless. Within a 10-year period, the whole ecosystem of that area transformed. In today's contemporary world, all natural treasures have been removed/cut down in order to promote urbanisation, and individuals have used their imagination to create the notion of vertical gardens on the walls of their homes. They are removing plants and bushes from the mother earth's surface and then glueing them on the walls of their cubes in a pattern or design shape.

This artwork was exhibited at Method Delhi in the group exhibition "Fresh Produce" (January 2025).