‘Paper Gardens’: The Flower and the Serpent Beneath

Why It Matters

By revealing the exploitative roots of botanical art, the show prompts a reassessment of cultural ownership and decolonizes museum storytelling, influencing how art and science histories are presented.

Key Takeaways

• Colonial plant hunting blended science with profit motives.
• Indian artists enriched botanical illustrations with local aesthetics.
• Exhibition exposes erased contributions of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.
• Botanical art served as visual tool for empire expansion.
• Museum challenges traditional Eurocentric narratives through contextual displays.

Pulse Analysis

Botanical illustration emerged in the 1700s as a scientific tool, yet it was inseparable from the commercial ambitions of the British East India Company. Artists in Europe relied on detailed drawings to identify lucrative cash crops—indigo, pepper, and later tea—while colonial botanists used the same images to map territories and assert control. This dual purpose created a visual language that celebrated exotic flora but concealed the extraction of resources and knowledge from colonised societies.

“Paper Gardens” reframes that legacy by placing Indian perspectives at the centre of the narrative. The exhibition pairs iconic hand‑coloured lithographs with works by local painters, Mughal‑style garden scenes, and archival texts that record native plant names in Malayalam, Konkani, Arabic and Latin. By foregrounding the contributions of Indian artists and the garden‑building initiatives of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the show challenges the myth of European discovery and restores agency to the communities that originally cultivated these species.

The broader implication for museums and cultural institutions is a push toward decolonised curation. When exhibitions contextualise artefacts within their socio‑political histories, they invite audiences to question entrenched narratives and recognise the ongoing impact of colonial extraction on biodiversity and intellectual property. As global audiences demand more inclusive storytelling, exhibitions like “Paper Gardens” set a precedent for integrating art, science, and history in ways that honour both aesthetic value and ethical responsibility.