This work is a drawing of Colocasia esculenta, an old world food source. A root tuber which is one of the earliest cultivated plants. Garima first ate this tuber, also called Taro during the research trip to Paupa New Guinea in 2016. There was a large plantation of Taro with leaves growing taller than six feet right under the tree where several Emperor Birds of Paradise would regularly come and practice their mating dance. Back in Delhi, the artist had a dwarf variety of the tuber growing wild in the front yard and her mother would pull it out after every monsoon and call it 'weeds'. (From the fieldwork notebook, 2016)

As an artist and researcher, Garima Gupta’s field of interest and study stretches from ornithology, topographical alterations and nuances of behaviour patterns between man and wild, primarily in the Southeast Asian archipelago. Through her intriguing drawings and documentaries, Garima traces patterns of destruction from different historical periods, ruminating on the connection between imperialist iconographies concerning wildlife and its mirror images lurking in the psyche of the modern-day East. Her ongoing work focuses on environmental catastrophe and wildlife loss through her in-depth research on wildlife hunters in the New Guinea rainforests, wildlife bazaars in parts of Indonesian islands and taxidermy related trade in Thailand.

View the work in augmented reality in your own space here: https://www.tarq.live/