Bengaluru: Gallery – g in association with The Taj West End presents “Walk the Green Carpet”- Bengaluru’s first botanical art show by Leslie Johnson on Friday, March 27th, 2015. The art show is held at the Art Corridor, Taj west End, Bengaluru from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. The show features wood chip installations and tree knot images by the artist- uses plants and vegetation as media and effectively communicates environmental messages.

“Walk the Green Carpet,” as the artist, Leslie Johnson explains, ”the name was developed from the idea of the red carpet. Walking the red carpet is a spectacle, with its own set of aesthetics, associated with the entertainment industry.  It is its own industry – the industry of pageant and spectacle. The green carpet is instead a tactile surface which gives the sensation of walking in the Nature.”

Leslie Johnson’s green carpet wood installations made of thousands of wood chips is painted in different greens and subverts red carpet conventions of glamour and spectacle, evoking sensations of walking outdoors. It contrasts the aesthetics of artifice with what’s “natural” and “green.”

The other main installation is the “Wall of Knots”- an assembly of images of tree knots. Leslie explains, “Although we hear the word ‘knot’ as negative, knots are the points in the tree where it divides and branches into new directions.”

Expressing her views, Ms. Gitanjali Maini, Founder of Gallery-g shared, “It is indeed a great privilege to be associated with Leslie Johnson, a world renowned artist. We see this show as a reminder that art can, more often than not serve a larger purpose, even as it delights the senses.”

She further added, “This is India’s first Botanical Public art pedagogy show and the installations are not for sale.  It just focuses on educating people through unconventional methods, opening our minds to the most improbable ways of understanding life.”

After majoring in art from Connecticut, USA, Leslie Johnson worked and exhibited her art works in Sweden, Moscow and New York. Few of her works exhibited ”Days to Go” presented at New York, “Casting In/Casting Out” presented at Bengaluru and ”Was I thinking in woodgrain… or just bored in the wunderkammer?” presented at Göteborg are the most recent and well known solo art works. ”Nature: A Good Idea” exhibited at Sweden, and ”Walk the Green Carpet” video Installed as an outdoor carpet outside the Agricultural History Museum in Molndal, Sweden are some of her other legendary art works.  Leslie Johnson is presently teaching at Shrishti School of Art, Design and Technology (SSADT).