Engaging with plants in an urban environment through street art and design

Abstract

Societal Impact StatementEngaging people with botanical street art and design is a good way to draw attention to the botanical world. Here, the importance of plants to people's everyday life in India is highlighted through street art and design. By focusing on the plant motifs present in everyday urban environments, educators can shine a light on the deep historical and cultural connections that we share with plants. This could be a vital tool for those wishing to draw attention to plants in urban settings and highlight their importance for human existence and life on Earth, and as a possible route to counteract plant blindness in urban settings. Summary This article explores plant motifs in street art and design artifacts in India, in order to gain insights toward a pedagogical framework for studying plants in the context of higher education in art and design. The study was carried out as a visual ethnography of the representational use of plants in the public environment, in street art and design artifacts; theoretical implications are drawn from the findings of the ethnographic work for a public pedagogy concerning plants. Across India, street art and craft practices engage with plant representations and plant motifs through diverse materials, techniques, and media. Plant motifs are encountered across personal, professional, and official contexts. Their presence is, in many cases, explained by beliefs in Hinduism, the dominant religion in India. Several historical and culturally meaningful motivations could thereby be established for the use of botanical themes by street artists and craftspeople, which are readily available as a resource for public pedagogy about plants. Plant motifs are common in street art and design artifacts in India. Clear motivations for the public use of these motifs are outlined in the article. The combination of widespread plant motifs and the rich tapestry of motivations for presenting them in the public space offers good scope for a public pedagogy curriculum that highlights the traditional and culturally rich symbolic function of plants in people's lives in this region.