Between gargantuan roots; the intricate roadmap-like details of a fallen seed next to the bark of a peeling eucalyptus tree; hues of vermilion, ocher, and celebratory orange; a butterfly’s wing, resting on wet, soft earth as a dried leaf rolls by only to stick to a pin-holed, ant infested, tree branch. As human beings one is tied to nature in a primordial way. However, one tries to tame it, cut it down, build cities, and relegate it to specific areas within our cities for our own amusement and recreation, sometimes as specific plots awaiting development. Artist, Maya Bhalla, is intrigued by our obsession with nature on one hand, and our repulsion of uncontrolled nature, on the other. ‘w/underland’ seeks to understand how our relationship with nature can be personal and integrated into our daily living, and sometimes what happens when it is not. To be drawn into another world- into ‘w/underland’, into these plots of green space, is to want to understand. This is a place where one can be both big and small at the same time. She says, ‘I am not just the adult trespassing onto a mass of green, but also somewhere within me is the child, [...]
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