After Yellow is a garden sown with Oriental Mustard (tori in Nepali and t ū in Nepal Bhasa) in a pattern evoking a traditional wooden mustard mill from the nearby village of Khokana, just south of Kathmandu. The community is famed for its centuries-old practice of mustard cultivation and the milling of the prized mustard oil that it supplied to Kathmandu, the country, and beyond.
Originating in the foothills of the Himalayas, the cultivation of Oriental Mustard has spread out from Nepal and far across the globe. Its culinary and medicinal use is well documented, including in ancient Sanskrit texts, and for a long time mustard oil was the only cooking oil used in Nepal. Today, both the physical and intangible heritage of Indigenous mustard oil and the pioneering cooperative mill system that developed over 600 years ago are threatened by new machinery and global market competition, making local production unviable. The cultivation of mustard itself is slowly disappearing, as Kokhana in Lalitpur district is engulfed by the rapid urbanisation of the Kathmandu Valley.
Referencing land art and colour felds from the history of monochrome painting – in particular Rodchenko’s Pure Yellow Colour from 1921 – this work by Orlow is an homage to Indigenous technologies and a reminder of economic models on the brink of being forgotten. Putting the vegetal center-stage, After Yellow acts as a witness to the histories of human-plant interactions and is rooted in the local seasonal cycles of change as well as the traditional calendars of cultivation. As such, it also serves as a critical symbol for what French Philosopher Bruno Latour and others have described as the growing disconnect between the land we live on and the land we live from.
Commissioned for Kathmandu Triennale 2077.
Designed & Developed by: Curves n' Colors | Visual identity by: Wkshps
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