What is Wild to the City?
Artistic Installation
Stories with | Nirjesh Gautam
Artist-Designer | Ipshita Raj
Concept Note
What is Wild to the City? explores the nature thriving within urban landscapes, alongside its human, plant, and animal inhabitants, through the eyes of Delhi ecologist Nirjesh Gautam. The project questions the common urban perception of nature as solely vast, distant wilderness, suggesting that even the small gardens in our homes offer vital connections to the natural world.
Gautam emphasises the importance of noticing one’s immediate surroundings to foster these connections. He views urban nature not just as a backdrop to city life but as a silent narrator of human history and our relationship with the environment, having evolved through time. Just as people move, plants too have migrated, both in intended and unintended ways—native and introduced species now coexist, forming complex ecosystems of cooperation and competition.
Hidden within these spaces are countless stories reflecting history, society, and how human preferences have shaped the present urban environment. This project thus encourages viewers to observe the subtle ways nature adapts to urban life, to appreciate its current form, and to develop their own personal connections and narratives, inspired by Gautam's perspective on his own urban surroundings.
About
Ipshita Raj
Ipshita Raj is a multidisciplinary designer, illustrator and writer with a special interest in the sciences, climate and environmental issues and stories, with a B.Des in Visual Communication from Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. She believes design and art is a medium for change, and that there can never be anything as much as ‘too much’. You can find her on her Instagram, or visit her portfolio to see more of her work.
Nirjesh Gautam
Nirjesh Gautam is a researcher at the Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability, Ambedkar University Delhi, whose work broadly includes observing and understanding nature within cities—how ecosystems persist, adapt, and interact with human life in urban settings.
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