About the exhibition

Lavanya Mani’s artworks weave together a rich tapestry of mythological and historical references, drawing from biblical accounts of the flood, ancient Indian fables, and illustrations of supernatural phenomena in Medieval manuscripts such as the Book of Miracles and the Persian book The Wonders of Creation. Trained in painting and skilled in traditional craft techniques, Mani employs natural pigments extracted from for example turmeric, madder root, and pomegranate peel on milk-soaked cotton canvas to create multi-layered artworks. Her works often delve into how stories and visual culture, akin to spices, dyes, textiles, and diseases, have traversed between societies through colonial trade routes, impacting colonialism and the economics of imperialism in India.

At the center of the exhibition stands The Ark: Animals of the World Complain to the Raven (after Miskin), inspired by a famous painting by Miskin, a court painter during the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India. In Mani’s interpretation of this historic cautionary tale, she presents a modern Noah’s Ark where birds, plants, sea creatures, and land animals huddle together, conspicuously devoid of human presence. In the new works made specifically for the exhibition, Mani allows the elements of wind, clouds, and animals to be the main protagonists, bridging historical visions of the apocalypse with contemporary anxieties surrounding climate change and how to protect all forms of life.

Fables is Part I of the group exhibition The Ocean in the Forest.

Part II opens on May 4 with projects in the sculpture park by Youmna Chlala, Evan Ifekoya, and Eduardo Navarro.

About the artists