Bodhi Shola is a female artist exploring consciously interconnected living through photography and ritualistic practice, placing presence into the space that unites intimacy, sacredness and Nature in an eco-feminist perspective on contemporary social culture. Her practice is devoted to nurturing harmonious relationships among the human and non-human realms, building awareness towards a sensitive development of society, nurturing an animistic vision. Her work is informed mainly by her experience in relationship with elemental wisdom, plant consciousness and meditation.
The process of lived experience is vital for the creation of the imagery, which is nourished by profound and personal observations on the interrelation between the human body, the creative principles and the natural environment. Through a spontaneous use of colour, the images take the function of revealing a lived dream-like state, a space inhabited by feeling, magic and symbolical coding, independent from dogmatic understanding. The oneiric layer descends into matter by the means of photographic imagery that addresses unspoken collective themes and documents landscapes for preservation and regeneration, medicinal plant species as well as creating ceremonial practices honouring the connection to the spirit of Life.
The artistic creations and processes adopt resources from local and ethical trade artisanal businesses, supporting women employment and equality and the use of organic and compostable materials. Each element displayed in the imagery is carefully chosen for its meaning, healing properties and its relation to the landscape it lives in.
Bodhi Shola’s work has been exhibited in several group exhibitions including Mudec Museum, Milano; Fotografiska Museum; Armani Silos, Milan; Red Hook Labs Gallery, NY; Beacon Gallery, Boston; Leica Gallery, Milan. Her work has been presented in publications including The New York Times Magazine, Vogue Italia, The British Journal of Photography and Atmos Magazine.
In what ways does nature inspire or inform your work?
Nature, far beyond being simply the green grass and the atmosphere we breath, it is all we come from, we are made of and all we will ever be. Nature to me is the principle behind my work as an artist, inspiration in its infinite forms, from the geometrical textures of the leaves to the complexity of a human being. Initially compelled in following a career in either biology or human psychology, these two domains remain of great relevance in my personal studies, which develop in parallel to my work as a photographer, allowing me ultimately to incorporate my learnings into my experience through creativity.
What does it mean to you to be part of a thriving ecosystem?
I believe that it is fundamental to remember that, despite our beliefs as society, we have never been individual in our being. Each aspect of the world and beyond is part of a network of connections, a thread linking all species and all living beings, which relies on the equilibrium of each component to thrive harmoniously. The moment we shift our actions into the fulfillment of personal needs the balance is broken and creates a hole in the system of living. Each part of the ecosystem provides for a general wellbeing, not in benefit of the single, but for the evolution on a universal scale. In this way each need will be met through the sharing effort of a community in respect for the space it is occupying and the life forms in it. Sustainability to me means focusing on giving instead of taking, recompensated by the richness of the unexpected gift that will come back in the cycle of sharing.
