Language of Nature, Language of Culture: Towards a Decolonial Art History

Against a warm golden-orange backdrop, delicate black botanical illustrations weave together leaves, blossoms, and winding branches. Bold white lettering on deep navy-blue panels reads “Language of Nature, Language of Culture,” with the subtitle “Towards a Decolonial Art History,” inviting reflection on the intertwined relationships between nature, culture, and artistic expression.
Title
Language of Nature, Language of Culture: Towards a Decolonial Art History
Description
A three-year research and pedagogical project of the South Asia Art Initiative at the Institute for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley, supported by the Getty Foundation's Connecting Art Histories initiative. It reconsiders the relation between nature and culture in art history, treating them not as opposing domains but as categories produced together through histories of matter, mobility, imagination and power. Through public programs, field-based workshops and collaborative research with a global cohort of scholars and practitioners, it aims to build a lexicon for South Asian art histories grounded in climate, decolonization and planetary thought.
Creator
South Asia Art Initiative, UC Berkeley
Rights
Rights held by artists or creator(s)

Part of Language of Nature, Language of Culture: Towards a Decolonial Art History