TERRAPHYTIC

“Terraphytic” is a pictorial series exploring the symbiotic bond between soil and plants, rooted in Javanese and Balinese mythology, particularly the tale of Naga Antaboga, primordial earth god, and his daughter Dewi Sri, goddess of fertility. This myth speaks to a universal truth: soil gives life to plants, and plants sustain and protect the land. One cannot exist without the other.

The works pay tribute to ancestral worldviews in which nature is not a resource but a sacred, living presence. These myths are not fantasy, but expressions of ecological consciousness, reminders that we belong to a larger, interdependent cycle.

In an age of ecological crisis, I feel an urgent need to reactivate such narratives, not as nostalgia, but as moral and spiritual tools. Reconnecting with the living world is an act of resistance against the Anthropocene.

Rooted in both ancient narratives and close observation of the living world, I investigate the deep interdependency between soil and vegetation. Through representation, I develop contemporary animist iconography that reintroduces figures of our ecosystem into a spiritual framework. It is a way to restore the symbolic and sensitive presence of natural elements within our reach.

To construct this visual language, I work exclusively with soil pigments that I collect by hand in Bali and Java, cultivating a direct and tactile connection with the land. The dyeing process is guided by gravity: pigments flow across damp fabric, forming spontaneous, organic shapes that evoke the subterranean force of Naga Antaboga.

Alongside this, I collect subjects from the rice fields ecosystem, a sacred space associated with Dewi Sri. I study grasses and other plants under the microscope, transforming these observations into digital patterns, which are then printed on fabric using the same earth pigments. They reflect the fundamental principles of biological organization—cyclical repetition and symmetry, as seen in mitotic structures and the morphology of living systems.