The Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is hosting 'Paper Gardens,' an exhibition that re-examines the history of botanical art through the lens of British colonialism. While the show features visually stunning hand-coloured lithographs of rhododendrons and medicinal plants, it juxtaposes these aesthetics with the harsh realities of the East India Company’s surveys. The exhibition highlights how local Indian artists and knowledge keepers were often marginalized or left anonymous, even as their expertise was essential to the scientific and commercial success of the British Empire.
This exhibition matters because it decolonizes the genre of botanical illustration, moving beyond mere scientific appreciation to address the 'violence of the colonial project.' By showcasing works from the seventeenth-century Hortus Malabaricus alongside 19th-century commissions by Joseph Dalton Hooker, the show exposes how the act of 'discovering' and naming plants served to consolidate imperial power. It challenges viewers to see these illustrations not just as sterile scientific records, but as artifacts of migration, unequal collaboration, and the commercial exploitation of the Indian subcontinent.