Riya Bhartia is an interdisciplinary artist born in Calcutta. Her work makes a case for care, towards ourselves and the world around us, grounded in the belief that we are not separate from nature but a part of it. By viewing matter as kin and making as an act of care she explores the ethical dimensions of a material practice. She extends agency and empathy to the materials she works with and the hands that make them. There is a conscious slowness to her process with the desire to grow with the materials rather than extract from them. Her role is to witness and translate the quiet stories nature is trying to tell us. Some explorations include botanical collage, photography, textile, sculpture, watercolour and drawing.