Natural Colour Atlas is a collaboration between myself, Nidiya Kusmaya (Indonesia) and Bintan Titisari (UK) supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture programme.
Together we are developing an open platform to share our conversations, knowledge and personal stories about natural colour. We are exploring how climate, landscape, culture and heritage shape colour identity in our different regions in the UK and Indonesia.
Natural Colour Atlas fosters creative exchange, sustainability, and material innovation, promoting accessible, participatory knowledge of colour while strengthening international collaboration in the arts.
In September 2026, the Natural Colour Atlas travelled to Bandung, Indonesia, bringing together the research and colour investigations developed by myself, Bintan Titisari and Nidiyah Kusmaya over the past year.
The exhibition at the Design Centre FSRD, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) provided an opportunity to share our research with students, artists and the wider creative community in Bandung. Bringing together plant dyes, pigments, materials, samples and research from both the UK and Indonesia, the exhibition explored how climate, landscape, local plants and personal experience influence our relationship with colour.
For me, exhibiting in Bandung was particularly exciting because it created a direct conversation between the seasonal palette I have been developing in West Yorkshire and the very different climate, vegetation and natural colour resources of Indonesia. It has been fascinating to see both the differences and connections between our approaches, and to consider how deeply our local landscapes influence the colours we make.
