Curatorial Note

In the face of global climate catastrophe, and the international currents of violence, denial, fear, hostility, suspicion, and the inclination to avert or look away, the necessity to become resilient, to question, speak out and resist, has never been more urgent. Embracing diversity in all its forms, and the accompanying qualities of empathy, tolerance and love, points to a radical path of resistance and resilience. Ecological and botanical diversity offers a potent promise for the survival of humaneness, humanity and nature.

Sara Aslam’s artistic vision takes in the cycles of life and fertility, and the recurring forms we find in nature. She keeps returning to the circular form. It holds promise and hope and creates a temporal continuum moving between the present, past and future. This is juxtaposed with an acknowledgement of human intervention through our urban structures and our traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual engagement with exploiting and cultivating plants in the service of medicinal, culinary and holistic needs.

Sara’s work specifically responds to the botanical diversity and nature, both indigenous and cultivated, at Gumchi Bagh, in Tumair, Islamabad, where she spent periods of time immersing herself and creatively responding to the farm environment. Alongside field research at Gumchi Bagh, Sara carried out research in RBGE’s extensive collections, including  South Asian plant and seed collections and botanical illustrations, photographs and maps. Her research also draws on indigenous cultural, herbal and medicinal knowledge, to inform her interdisciplinary practice.

The exhibition at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an installation of sculpture, film, botanical drawings, investigations, and artefacts. Through her work, Sara directs our attention to the rich possibilities offered by a diversity of cultivated and wild plant-life with its ecological, metaphysical, temporal, historical and cultural significances. She creates subtle and powerful artistic interventions that aesthetically and temporally shift our perceptions. She asks us to slow down, observe, immerse, question, and re-learn. These are all acts of resistance. Her interventions seek to preserve and pursue ecological diversity as a powerful vision for the future.

SANA BILGRAMI – CURATOR