DHAN "Call of the Soil"
Installation Artwork: Chiman Dangi
Materials : 7 Brass Plates,
Location: Art Junction Residency Udaipur 2024
This installation is a tribute to soil, memory, and labor. The red earth placed in brass plates is not mere clay—it symbolizes the toil of our ancestors, our deep-rooted bond with the land, and the cultural traditions that shaped us.
Nowadays, whenever people gather for weddings or festivals, conversations often revolve around wealth and extravagance—“He spent this much,” “She wore so much gold.” As the son of a farmer and an artist, I often listen silently... but within me, a different memory stirs.
I am taken back to my childhood, to the early mornings before Holi, when my mother and sisters Women in the neighborhood would go out to collect yellow or red clay. That soil, which was used to plaster our homes, was revered like jewelry. For us, that earth was true wealth—the same earth from which life grows, which turns to gold in a farmer’s hands.
This installation holds that memory alive.
It is the "Call of the Soil"—a symbolic and emotional reflection on what true wealth means. It reminds us that the land is not just a resource, but something worthy of gratitude and respect.
It asks: is wealth only money, or also the very soil that gives us life?
