By Gita Wolf

The connection of skill and labour to art making has always interested us. We’re curious not only about the aesthetic and philosophical aspects of traditional art, but equally in its connection to artisanal practices, the craft that goes into giving it a physical form. In the case of Mata-Ni-Pachedi, this involves painting, block-printing and dyeing techniques which are painstaking, requiring skill and experience. This kind of artisanal knowledge is profound and priceless, but it is not valued highly, and seen more as a sequence of repetitive tasks learned through apprenticeship. Instead of holding artisanal practices against the mirror of industrial manufacture — or seeing them as distinct from art-making — we’d like to connect them intrinsically to the creative process.

By Gita Wolf

What potential does art offer as healing in the time of a pandemic? As we all emerge slowly from a year filled with illness, death, and despair, we wanted to look forward to better times by recollecting a myth that’s curiously comforting. There is a belief amongst the indigenous Rathwa tribe from Gujarat that creating a particular painting—called Pithora—banishes adversity and brings about a change in fortune.

By V. Geetha

In an era of exploding digital alternatives to the schoolroom, it is perhaps good to remember that learning is not only about ideas and information, which digital sources supply in abundance. It has also to do with spontaneity, with the unexpected and the serendipitous.

Trace, flip and bring each animal in this book face to face with his or her twin…

By Gita Wolf & Divya Vijayakumar

Our enduring classic The Night Life of Trees is currently in its 15th English-language edition! Along with the 33 foreign language editions of the book, which have been published by our partners in 8 languages, this adds up to a staggering total of 120,864 copies worldwide! To celebrate its long-standing legacy, we’ve brought out a poster called Tree Covers, showcasing the many looks of this quintessential book.