When Kerala-based artist Sujith SN went on a cruise down the Nile a couple of years ago he was intrigued by the presence of a botanical garden next to the river. Here amid an arid landscape lay a fertile and fecund tract. In a world where an increasing prevalence of monocultures has led to a decline in bio-diversity, the idea of such a garden with its multitudinous flora captivated his imagination.

In Sujith’s paintings for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the botanical garden functions as a metaphor for diversity and cultural exchange. He connects it with Kochi, a historic port city that witnessed the flows of people and goods from all over the world. He also taps into the Hortus Malabaricus, a seventeenth-century Latin botanical treatise that documented the flora of the Malabar Coast. While the book was conceived by Hendrik van Rheede, the Governor of Dutch Malabar at the time, it was based on information provided by Itty Achudan, a herbalist and physician from Kerala. For Sujith the treatise was an eyeopener, not just because of the varieties of plants that were documented within it but also because of its socio-political qualities.

At the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sujith presents three grand-scale twelve-foot paintings, among them a triptych and diptych, apart from a host of smaller works.  An accomplished colourist, known for his dexterity in handling watercolours, he has pushed himself to experiment with tempera on paper. The luminous colours that he produces with the medium bring the lush vegetation to life, all the while underscoring a richness that only diversity can produce.