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.

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

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.

Here is a Pleasant Place