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Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024, marigold botanical dye on reclaimed fabric and Who is Belle Island?, 2023, buckthorn bark, berries, and leaves, botanical dye and ferrous sulfate on reclaimed fabric in Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys, Museum London, 21 November 2024–11 May 2025. Photographer: Angela Antonopoulos
Jill Glatt
Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys

Jill Glatt

Jill Glatt is a Katarokwi/Kingston, Ontario-based illustrator, printmaker, arts educator, and teacher. Her practice focuses on issues of ecology, community, and sustainability, and aims to inspire people to observe a less extractive relationship with the earth. Glatt’s artistic practice involves making dyes from foraged plants for paintings and prints.

A woman with long wavy hair and a blue coat sits on a chair outside. Behind her a dyed tapestry is hung infront of foliage.
Portrait of Jill Glatt. Courtesy of the artist.

You have this iconic cultural item, the marigold, that is so deeply associated with a culture or a country, and it came from somewhere else. And it’s also a product of global trade and colonization, and movement and change and people flowing to different places around the world.

Four large botanical dyed and reclaimed fabric panels suspended from the ceiling above a bench, and in front of a photographic installation with a rattan peacock chair.
Fig 1. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024 and Who is Belle Island?, 2023
Four large botanical dyed and reclaimed fabric panels suspended from the ceiling.
Fig 2. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024 and Who is Belle Island?, 2023
Four large botanical dyed and reclaimed fabric panels suspended from the ceiling.
Fig 3. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024 and Who is Belle Island?, 2023
Close-up of marigold botanical dyed and reclaimed batik-print fabric suspended in three panels from the ceiling.
Fig 4. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024

Migratory Roots

The following text is an excerpt from With Opened Mouths: The Podcast. It has been edited for content and clarity. 

Qanita: Working with botanicals, dyes and block printing feels natural for you. What drew you to botanicals and sustainability?

Jill: With regards to ecology, I have to go back to my family. My Dad went to university for forestry. And he would know any tree across Canada with the Latin genus and probably some tidbits about it too. And so, I always thought that was so amazing to just be able to recognize and identify these things that other people don’t consider or take notice of. But I also thought that it was really interesting and really valuable. And then I started to practice that with trees. I started trying to identify lots of native trees in Ontario. My block printing, my lino-printing was all different kinds of trees. I was very fixated on fir trees, pine trees, walnut trees and whatever else. And then, that eventually progressed. Once you start noticing different species, you notice how they work together. And so, I became interested then in other companion plants and lower ground plants and flowers. And the world opened up for me. Understanding how so many things are delicately balanced and connected with one another. I guess, building off of that, in terms of connection, all these plants are connected and then humans are connected because, ideally, we should be stewards of plants and have relationships with them. So, the emphasis on community and accountability is woven into that interest in the natural world because we’re all part of the natural world.

Qanita: The title of one of your works in Ukutula is Who is Belle Island, could you explain a bit about Belle Island?

Jill: That’s a great question. Who is Belle Island? Who is she? So Billie (Kearns) and I had lots of really fantastic conversations thinking over the idea of personhood and land as person, and the land having its own identity. And so, in Cataraqui, now known as Kingston, is this beautiful island which has been significant to the local indigenous population for hundreds of years. Portions of Belle Island are sacred burial sites; other areas were used and enjoyed. And then, the city of Kingston decided that she was not of any particular use to them. And so, it hasn’t been taken care of by the city of Kingston. But instead over the years, there’s a Belle Island Caretaker Circle. And they’ve been checking in with her and making sure that buckthorn, for example, doesn’t completely overrun the other populations. They are cultivating this very personal, intimate relationship with Belle Island. And I think it is a very personal relationship. So the question is, how do we engage with land while respecting what the land needs and wants from us?

Qanita: Who is Belle Island and Seed are coming to London, Ontario. For you, it’s like going back to where you came from. But for Seed you chose new botanicals. In Who is Belle Island you used buckthorn. Could you talk a bit about why you chose those botanicals, why they’re important to you?

Jill: Starting off with the botanical component, this time I focussed on marigolds specifically French marigolds also known as African marigolds. I chose marigolds because, for years now, I’ve been wrestling with the role that my own identity plays in my work, or should play, and how to acknowledge it. My mom’s side of the family are all from India, Goa and Mumbai. And my grandparents were born and lived there most of their lives. And then, my Mom and her brother moved over to Canada when she was three years old. My Dad’s side of the family is English, Scottish, German, of settler lineage.

 I’ve always been identified by other people. Especially in London, when I was growing up which was so White. There were barely any people of colour at the elementary school. And people were always asking or trying to guess “where are you from?” Personally, I had a lot of hang-ups about that in my head about being “other.” Canada has had so much more immigration over the past ten to twenty years that there’s a lot less questions I have to field. But I’m conscious of the fact that I can represent something as a person of colour to a lot of different people for different reasons. And also, the fact that I had a very kind of classic White North American Canadian upbringing. And I didn’t have a lot of cultural ties to India at all, other than the food my grandmother and my grandfather made. So, food was our main link. And there wasn’t really anything else. And it wasn’t something that was talked a lot about. And I also know too that my grandparents grew up in a post-colonial India. And that they were brought up Catholic. And so, we had a lot of Catholic influence on my mom’s side. But there isn’t a lot of “culture” that is naturally a part of my life as a person of colour. So I want to have a deeper link to that part of my family but I also don’t want to invent something that’s not there. I’ve been thinking for a couple of years about how to visually represent that kind of tension and discomfort.

 And so, in Seed, I’ve chosen to represent it by integrating smaller elements of flora that’s identified with India. The marigold was a perfect flower to use for this piece because it’s identified with India and it’s used for religious celebrations and ceremonies, and it’s very iconic, but it’s not native to India either. And I think the specific marigolds that are used in India originally came from Mexico, what’s now known as Latin America. And so, I thought that was really interesting, that you could have this iconic cultural item, this plant that is so deeply associated with a culture or a country, and it would also come from somewhere else. And it’s also a product of global trade or colonization. And movement and change and people flowing to different places around the world. And it just so happens also to be a very potent dye plant. So I chose the marigold for that particular reason. And I just used it in as many ways I could possibly think of to highlight the flower and the colours and the warmth and the visuals. I did a print, a relief print that’s inspired by Indian block prints and did some dyeing that was used with the petals and evokes the idea of seeds and the flowers blowing through the wind, which is how the seeds would spread.

Full IMage Credits

Fig 1. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024, marigold botanical dye on reclaimed fabric and Who is Belle Island?, 2023, buckthorn bark, berries, and leaves, botanical dye and ferrous sulfate on reclaimed fabric in Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys, Museum London, 21 November 2024–11 May 2025.  Image © Alex Walker
Fig 2. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024, marigold botanical dye on reclaimed fabric and Who is Belle Island?, 2023, buckthorn bark, berries, and leaves, botanical dye and ferrous sulfate on reclaimed fabric in Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys, Museum London, 21 November 2024–11 May 2025. Image © Alex Walker
Fig 3. Installation view, Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024, marigold botanical dye on reclaimed fabric and Who is Belle Island?, 2023, buckthorn bark, berries, and leaves, botanical dye and ferrous sulfate on reclaimed fabric in Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys, Museum London, 21 November 2024–11 May 2025. Image © Alex Walker
Fig 4. Installation view (detail), Jill Glatt, Seed, 2024, marigold botanical dye on reclaimed fabric in Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys, Museum London, 21 November 2024–11 May 2025. Image © Alex Walker
Footnotes
Image Credits