KIMBERLY

Thanks again for tuning in to this week's episode of Art Uncovered. This week I am so honored to be here with Natesa Amin. Natesa, thanks so much for joining us this morning. 

NATESSA

Hi, thanks for having me. 

KIMBERLY

Of course. I'd like to start our conversation by talking a little bit about a recent experience you had. My understanding is that you participated in a weekend residency where you and a number of other artists were sent to live in the woods for a couple of days. You showered there, ate there, basically existed outdoors. And then as part of the residency, you made work in response to it.

So before we talk about the work, I'd love to learn about the experience . Was that something that was new for you? Being in the woods? Did you have contact with other artists or were you pretty much alone?

NATESSA

Yeah, it was a very much a communal experience, but there was room for individual experience when needed. It was new to me in the sense that I had not done something like that alone in quite some time. I grew up going to a Girl Scout camp that was in the woods, in the Poconos, so that was my entrance into being in a kind of uncomfortable outside experience. So there was definitely some kind of nostalgia or familiarity to it. But, it was funny. We were there in August. In upstate New York, where we were kind of given the opportunity to use that space and land and commune there and make art.

There was no electricity or running water. So there was just kind of like getting used to that. The first night we were there, it was like very randomly, unseasonably cold. So it got down into like the fifties at night and I realized I just wasn't prepared for that.

KIMBERLY

Were a tent? 

NATESSA

Yeah, I was staying in a tent. Everyone stayed either in tents or there were a few platforms for sleeping, but I was in a tent. When I was preparing for the weekend, I was just focused on like what art supplies I needed or wanted to have. I was just really excited for the opportunity to meet new people and have a new experience. I really only brought like one long sleeve shirt and one pair of long pants.

So that first night I was like “Am I going to make it?” I knew I would, but it was kind of like this mental endurance because I don't do well when I'm cold. I'm fine in super hot weather, but I get cold super easily. So the next morning I was thinking “were other people cold?”

We didn't know each other very well yet. You know, I didn't want to be the one that was like “I'm too cold to sleep outside.” So I pushed through and in the morning everyone was groggy and like, “yeah, it was freezing.” And then we all commiserated over that together. It was kind of like a little bonding moment.

But, yeah, it was really special. And you know, anytime you have a chance to kind of get out of your comfort zone or out of your regular routine, it's such a great way to reset. And it really reminds me of what I'm capable of, which I think can translate into the creative life as well.

KIMBERLY

Was it expected that you would make art while in the woods or was it expected that you made work afterwards? 

NATESSA

There really were no expectations. It was simply a place where we were offered time and space and community. It was a really beautiful experience. There was a mix of different types of artists. There were two musicians, a filmmaker. And then there were a few of us that were more kind of traditional visual artists,making sculpture and painting.

But I think any artist is always seeking time and space. I also think we were all surprised to find that being out in nature  did have some kind of effect on what we were doing or somehow did create new sparks of interest or imagination.

For example, I spent one whole day sitting in a field painting with another artist who was weaving these sculptures with grass. And I think that was sort of kind of new for them. We both kind of would like look over to each other throughout the day being like “do you know what you're doing?” And we just allowed this moment of kind of excitement and nuance and openness, which I think was really beautiful.

KIMBERLY

So everyone ended up making work either in the woods or afterwards, but the work accumulated in some kind of exhibition eventually, right?

NATESSA

Right. And we did all know that. So there was a premise that something would be produced. 

I completed like three or four of them on the residency, which then inspired the the rest of them. I've found in my own practice anytime I'm starting something new or really need some kind of reset or have felt like I'm in some kind of creative slump, referring to or going to the landscape or making art outside has always been the way for me to kickstart my creative process again. It creates some kind of mental clarity for me that allows me to enter into my practice from a new place. And so that was my hope for three days is that I could kind of find something like that. And with the series–that I ended up calling it karmic patterns–it really lends to this idea that we have these repetitive events or emotions or realizations in our lives. And so I was really wanting to process or meditate on things that I've learned so far in my own work and also how I could be more aware of my own practice.

And for me, being in nature, in the grass, being uncomfortable, kind of interacting with all of this, all my senses in the art making practice, it was really important for me and allowed me to reset. 

KIMBERLY

Beautifully said. Is there anything else you would like to add about this series or this process or experience?

NATESSA

I might just say that I knew I had two exhibitions coming up in the following six months, so it was a really important time. I was confronted with a lot of things at once that felt overwhelming and having acces to this kind of time and space and to be able to plan and think ahead and be intentional about what I was doing, it was really helpful. It was really important. 

KIMBERLY

Was three days enough? 

NATESSA

I think in terms of sleeping in a tent on the ground, it was for me, but I could have used a few more days of time with these new friends and art colleagues.

KIMBERLY

That sounds like such a special opportunity and experience. Is it an ongoing residency that artists can still apply for? 

NATESSA

So Beatrice, who is one of the organizers– it's her land. She invited us. She's been building out the land with her partner. So there are rails, there's an outhouse. It’s something they're kind of building together. I think the idea is that there will be some kind of opportunity every year, but I’m not sure. The kind of premise was very organic. 

KIMBERLY

That's great. What a beautiful thing. And what year did you do this in? 

NATESSA

That was in August of 2023. Just about a year ago, 

KIMBERLY

Got it. And your series “Back to Square One,” was this more recent? 

NATESSA

Yes

KIMBERLY

I'd like to talk about this one now because I noticed some kind of similarities in terms of the way the work was labeled and organized. Square 1, Square 2, for example. It seems to me that you were setting some kind of limitations for yourself. I am wondering if you can talk about [this decision]

NATESSA

Every couple of years, I feel like I engage in some kind of series like this. A lot of times I think it has to do with tactile material or things that I'm researching and thinking about, but also it's a way for me to be generative with the imagery that I'm thinking about and also have a part of my practice that is more Intuitive or based in play and openness and exploration.

So that's where I think the karmic pattern series, definitely. That's the way that functions.And then with the back to square one series, these are paintings that I made and were exhibited in an exhibition at the Fletcher Art Memorial in February and March this past spring, and they're the beginning of a larger kind of research project that I'm working on that's based on the game Shoots and Ladders.

So the goal for this project is that there will be 100 paintings and they will exist in a larger installation that will have different sculptural components and paintings on the ground. It's based off of my research into different kinds of cultural phenomenon that were translated or impacted by British colonialism in India, which is One part of my background, I'm half Indian. And so Shoots and Ladders, I discovered, originated as an ancient Indian game called Gayan Chopper, which was designed to teach children lessons in morality.

So the top of the grid represented spiritual enlightenment and then the bottom represented more like earthly egotism or lack of awareness. And players would move along the squares rolling dice and then advancing or descending depending on what they landed on. The game was changed to Snakes and Ladders during British colonization, and then eventually brought to the U. S. and shifted to Shoots and Ladders and developed [and distributed by] Milton Bradley.

So discovering that information, researching it, just, there was so much in there in terms of the function of chance in an art practice or also kind of wanting to understand certain elements of spirituality or my connection to that.

It is like a continuous theme of me discovering these things that I didn't realize originated from an Indian tradition.

KIMBERLY

In one of your statements, you wrote that you're inspired by a number of different cultures and places. You mentioned you have roots in India. Do you still have family over there? 

NATESSA

I don't have a lot of family there. So my, Father was born in India and then his family emigrated to Kenya when he was very young. And so all of his family and all of my close relatives lived in Kenya until I was  a kid and then eventually all came to the US. So I have very few. We have some distant relatives that are still in India and then also a few distant relatives and cousins that live in Kenya.

KIMBERLY

Is African and Indian art something that you’re stylistically inspired by? 

NATESSA

Yeah, definitely. I think growing up in the U.S. with an Indian father [and an American mother] I've always had this desire to find a stronger connection to my Indian ethnicity because there is [a feeling of] removal from being an immigrant from India, but [I also feel like I am] in between East Africa and India.

So I think a lot about that kind of migration and the ways that it impacted my family and the family dynamics that had emerged from that, and then also just the combining of cultures that I grew up around, which was super beautiful and interesting and also could be really challenging at times because I've had grandparents that were Christian on one side and Hindu on the other.

When you're a kid trying to make these decisions are trying to come to some kind of resolution of like, who do I believe or, you know, what, what's right or what's wrong. Um, and so I think art for me is like one of the ways that I've tried to resolve some of those questions that I've had in relation to the the combination of culture and religion and tradition. 

KIMBERLY 

I'm wondering if your mark-making is also kind of inspired by this, because one of the earlier works looked like you had some kind of drawing or painting on the first layer, then you had a thick layer of black on top of that was etched away. I am wondering because you use the words void or removal in an earlier answer. Is that act of removing parts of a surface [an association you make]?

NATESSA

Definitely. Especially in the newer work. The beginning of last summer, I did this workshop at the Al Held Foundation. [Al Held] was known for using tape as a tool in his painting process. The workshop was held by his longtime assistant, and we actually all got to make paintings on one of his old canvases, which is kind of amazing.

He had all these test canvases that he would map out his compositions on and then methodically note how they were made and then he would remake them in a larger scale. So we got to make paintings on his test canvases, which were all like six feet tall. They were huge. We had like four hours to make a painting and use all of the kind of techniques that he used.

And I've never used tape really. I've never really been super interested in hard edges. But there was something about that process that, that kind of indicated a sense of like scar tissue in the process. And that really struck me. It was a moment of realization for me where a lot of times I feel like I think about the painting like a skin or a kind of process that is at times regenerative or sometimes I'm kind of like goring into it or, or removing information or allowing a reveal.

This revelation sparked an interest in thinking about healing and the healing process, whether that's like bodily or mentally or spiritually and how, how that kind of presents itself in my work. 

Both of my parents are in the medical field. So I kind of grew up surrounded by, essentially healers.That was their profession. My dad is a surgeon.

He was an emergency surgeon. Like if you cut your finger off, he would replace it. That was his specialty. And my mom worked pretty closely with him, so it just brought up a lot of memories of being in their office after school and witnessing them use all these amazing tools and processes and techniques to, to heal.

KIMBERLY

I'm curious, if both of your parents are doctors. Was there ever a an argument or a conversation around spirituality versus science because your work seems to be heavily inspired by Spirituality.

NATESSA

Not really. I think we were always surrounded by both science and spirituality, and there was never really a hierarchy.

KIMBERLY

Do you think you can identify a point in your life or art career where your interest in the cosmic world or cosmic experiences [manifested]? Like was there a situation or an event or something that happened that kind of triggered your desire to explore it through art?

NATESSA

Yeah, I do think having all of these different aspects or points of view or religions and traditions available made me really curious about “where do we come from” or like “where does an idea come from?” It [comes from this] desire to explore the unknown and continue to be curious about not knowing and then bringing that into the real world.

I just feel like there's so much that happens in the painting process where you are able to kind of get to a place where you're like on the cusps of something new or something that you haven't done before, or you're answering questions that maybe would not have come up in other parts of your life. So, I think for me that's where the cosmic enters and that's where I continue to be endlessly curious. 

KIMBERLY

You said that last year you had two exhibitions and you were a bit overwhelmed. Now here we are a year later–do you have anything on your plate for the future? 

NATESSA

Yeah. The past six months have been Really difficult, professionally and then personally, and just a lot piled on. And so I'm looking forward to a few speaking engagements. I'm going to be speaking at a conference in the fall that is about painters who do sculpture, which I think is going to be pretty fun. That is at the college of Charleston. 

I'm excited about that because it'll be fun to meet the other artists and talk aboutthat balance. 

And then I'm kind of just like getting back into the studio.Because I just had this like whirlwind of two solo shows. And then I also took a group of students to Florence in the spring, so it was just like a lot. So I'm like still decompressing from all of that, but, um, I'm really excited about this new project and trying to get back to square one project and figure out how to create more of an immersion immersive space. 

I had been working with painting and installation for several years and I kind of took a little step back from that just because I was really excited about painting again last year and now I'm thinking about how I can make an even more immersive experience or world for the paintings to live in.

KIMBERLY 

That is very exciting. I look forward to following your journey. Listeners i'll be sure to include links to Natessa's instagram and website and things like this so you can follow her work also. Natessa, thanks so much for joining us today.

NATESSA

Thank you so much for having me.