We Must Cultivate Our Garden
Voltaire, in his 1759 satire Candide, wrote, “One must
cultivate one’s garden.” Nathan Coley, in 2008, wrote
out “WE MUST CULTIVATE OUR GARDEN” with
LED lights. I, Gugan Gill, think of community and
place and often think to myself, “We must cultivate
our garden.” Such a space can be considered a living
archive, and here I invite you into the garden of my family home, a space that is familiar and yet
constantly changing.
I invite you to make yourself at home.
I invite you to make yourself at home.
One word echoes and reverberates in the songs and slogans of Indian people struggling against ‘development’: ‘mati’ — soil. For these people soil is not simply a resource, it provides the very essence of their being. For large segments of Indian society the soil is still a sacred mother.
- Vandana shiva
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Peedis
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f458863a5c399ae79a56ab19824254ac40ed9685fd539d516d4adf82c379dfab/martina-t1105.jpeg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf7eb84f2d8c4934d96f268a44e918a2b7755d6ae8122cebf250c13a4a85a928/martina-t0967.jpeg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ed0238023674f12931ba3e3c7ad7cb9519da24fff35964fd2c54ee4653831fb/martina-t0965.jpg)
The weaving is directly inspired by a craft pursued by the my Great Grandmother, my Nani Ji (Grandmother), and many other women of older generations in Punjab. Weaving was often a part of women’s dowries when getting married.
Visuals of my Grandparents’ garden have been abstracted and woven together, an homage to her Nani Ji’s love for the garden, the cultural uprooting of immigration, growing and cultivating a home.
Visuals of my Grandparents’ garden have been abstracted and woven together, an homage to her Nani Ji’s love for the garden, the cultural uprooting of immigration, growing and cultivating a home.
Here is a Pleasant Place
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4ceab643987b00d41ab4845f8ed31878733d2e88781f80b73494bde5c81a4e96/IMG_7122.jpg)