See like a Curator: Paper Gardens

Join us for a curator-led guided walk of the exhibition Paper Gardens: Art, Botany, and Empire.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the Indian subcontinent was the site of extensive botanical surveys under colonial rule. Plant collection and classification were closely tied to imperial economic, medical, and political interests, and botanical illustration played a central role in this project. Bringing together a new and historically significant collection of botanical art from this period, the exhibition draws on recent scholarship to recover the often uncredited identities and histories of the Indian artists who made them.

Shrey Maurya, curator of the exhibition and Research Director at Impart, leads this guided walk through the layered histories embedded in these artworks, and their relevance to how we understand the natural world today.

Following the walkthrough, writer and poet Sumana Roy will read from her essay in the accompanying Paper Gardens book. Drawing on memory and lived experience, she reflects on the craze for the rhododendron and reconsiders the flower from within its native terrain.

‘Paper Gardens’ marks the continuation of a sustained, years-long collaboration between MAP and Impart — an online platform fostering greater public engagement with the art and cultural histories of South Asia.