Ever Met an 'Ugly' Flower?
Ever Met an 'Ugly' Flower? is the winning proposal for the Push/Pull Open Call at Archives at NCBS. The exhibition was launched on March 28, 2023 with a performative song, Unfolding Flowers, by Avril Stormy Unger.
Through themes of capitalism, colonisation, language and research, the exhibition explores gender, sexuality, botany and labour through the anchor of a flower.
Conceptualised by Komal Jain and detailed researched, curated and developed with Anoushka Mathews, Bhanu Prakash, Shafali Jain, and Ranjini Prasad.
Field
Exhibition
Client
National Centre for Biological Sciences
Year
March 2023 - January 2024
The exhibition was launched on a warm spring Sunday in the amphitheatre of Archives at NCBS. We had a picnic and opening performance by the artist, Avril Stormy Unger.
Based on her experiences and reflections, Avril performed Unfolding Flowers in front of an audience of 120+ visitors.
"Unique Concept with extraordinary creativity. It attracts beautiful souls of the universe as flowers attract every one."
"I am leaving not only with new perspective on flowers, but reflecting on myself and the society."
"The exhibition was described to me as sapphic lol. And what could be more sapphic than flowers - the gendered beauty of it, love of/for it."
"Finally excited to see queer representation on campus!"
"No flower is Ugly :)"
"A beautiful journey of 3 days and mid way I realised that this may be the first and last chance to grace my eyes with the beauty of intelligence. I took it all in as much as I could. These memories and these people are forever archived in my neurons."
select exhibits to explore
Includes individual exhibits and in collaboration
In Words We Flower
Language and society sometimes hold a reciprocal relationship in a tangled web of meanings, metaphors and expectations. By influencing each other, they ‘blossom’ and ‘wither’ the identities of individuals.
Collected over two years, the floral lexicologist scrapbook in this installation derives its stories from friends and family, modern day language and secondary research conducted on literature and botanical taxonomy. Feel free to share any stories that come to your mind while reading these.
The Burden Of Creation
Fig trees (Ficus carica) hold significance across cultures. Fig is the third fruit tree mentioned in the Bible after the Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge, in Qu’ran and the Hadith, figs are described as fruits from paradise, Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa). And for D.H Lawrence it was a secretive female for bearing ‘life’ (tsk. Read his poem, Figs).
Drawing from this analogy, the fig tree, an androgynous tree, is a place to reflect on the burden that women and flowers have to bear, uniquely as ‘creators’, and as beings that are sexualised and pedestalised and on the neglect of the responsibility of nurture and care meant to distribute and be inclusive across genders and the Earth itself, in creating and sustaining life.
Flowers Beyond Binary
Flowers are gendered, and flowers hold gender. They seem to define boundaries amongst us, too–after all, we as a society do pass judgement on who can and cannot wear flowers. In response, and through portraits and personal stories, six transgender artists associated with the Aravani Art Project – Chandri, Kanchana, Purushi, Sandhya, Shanthi, and Shwetha – share how flowers have been symbolic in embracing gender identities and agency.
Artist Group: The Aravani Art Project seeks to create a collective space with members of the transgender community through public art and other artistic interventions. The collective examines the spaces inhabited by trans communities, their sites of history and innovation, and creates a space for learning by transforming their inputs into works of art.
Cabinet of Curiosities
This Cabinet of Curiosities draws from the 16th century idea of 'Wunderkammer', literally translated from German as a 'room of wonder'. Many Wunderkammers originated in royal treasuries for safekeeping, but went on to become collections of notable objects and antiquities.
Conceptualised by Anoushka Mathews, the cabinet hopes to subvert and extend this idea and present a curious world of personal archives, often stashed away in drawers, closets, and cupboards. You will find objects, old notes from lovers and friends, paraphernalia found in the corners of antique shops, drawings by children, and letters to flowers.
And Still, I Rise
The seven pairs of images tell the stories of resistance through symbolism associated with flowers. From asserting identities, to finding communities, to creating new meanings, flowers and ideas associated with their morphology have been moulded to support them all.
Hover to read stories
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An army of guns is met with the sight of a single flower, held by a protestor. The flower becomes a symbol of resistance, love and peace.
Rulers and emperors hold the rose close to their being, wanting to be seen not as tyrannical oppressors but as benevolent dictators who were capable of seeing the beauty of a flower.
Why is a flower linked to the idea of human love over and over again, why is it perceived as peaceful, a symbol of resistance and dissidence?
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Ever Met an 'Ugly' Flower? is currently open to public until early 2024.
