Paper Orchids, Living Blooms

Botanical gardens have long operated as sites of inquiry, collection, and visualisation, underpinning practices of classification and production of botanical illustration. In this walkthrough and workshop, we re-examine historic botanical gardens within broader frameworks of imperial science and cultural production.

Foregrounding orchids, we trace the emergence of nineteenth‑century Victorian orchid mania, engage with rare varieties represented in the exhibition, and reconsider Indian botanical knowledge and labour in these visual records.

The workshop concludes with a lecture-demonstration in orchid cultivation by The Orchid Society of Karnataka (TOSKAR), connecting these archival documents to contemporary horticultural practice and expertise.

This programme is in conjunction with MAP’s ongoing exhibition, Paper Gardens: Art, Botany and Empire.