Bagh-e Hind in Lahore

Newsletter 8.2024

Our Smoke chapter from Bagh-e Hind opened in Lahore yesterday evening as part of the exhibition “Tomorrow isn’t promised”, curated by Fatma Shah. From the virtual to the real, our friend Fatma pulled out all the stops to recreate our sensorial vision for visitors! Many phuljari were tested so audiences could come and light the best sparklers on the opening night; bunches upon bunches of tuberoses were bought early morning at the flower market to be placed in the show— by the time they bloomed in the evening, a floral boom welcomed visitors! Several flower pots were also set in place and a sumptuous nastaliq font chosen for the exhibition title and Urdu poetry, left Nicolas and myself swooning! Hopefully I will have some nice photos to share within the week.

For the many new subscribers who have so kindly signed up for my fun, complainy, perfumey newsletter, “Bagh-e Hind: Scent translations of Mughal and Rajput Garden Paintings” is an independent open access digital project curated by Nicolas Roth, a horticulturist and scholar of Early Modern South Asia, (Cambridge, USA) and myself, an art critic and perfumer (Pune, India). We launched this olfactory and botanical map of the Mughal landscape on 10th September 2021. We found ourselves very much ahead of the curve where scholarship and art criticism were concerned. As far as I know, ours is the only cross-disciplinary collaboration to exist and we have since observed more academics pivot to explore the history of flowers and fragrance.

I’ve listed a few helpful links:

-Here is our bio: https://www.baghehind.com/curators

-We have had a physical exhibition at the Institute of Art & Olfaction in Los Angeles, in 2022: https://www.baghehind.com/baghirl

-We independently curated, designed and funded this exhibition: We commission various scholars to produce original essays on the sensorial history of Mughal India for our online exhibition catalogue: https://www.baghehind.com/catalogue

-We have given several interviews and co-authored essays: https://www.baghehind.com/news

-You can view our Opening Night Zoom event we held on 10/Sept/21 on Vimeo. We had some wonderful speakers.

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Personally, Bagh emerged from a very clear vision I had for translating garden paintings to scent and flavour as a means of access by 2018, but it also appeared from a mountain range of loathing for colonially-entrenched academia/museum-institutions that keep this knowledge circling the drain of conferences. We firmly believe that scholarship should be produced for the public good and should be made accessible through creative formats.

Nicolas and I have figured out numerous ways to pull out different chapters from our digital garden so that we never have to wait for any institution to offer us an opportunity. In December 2023, for example, our Narcissus chapter was exhibited in Kallol Dutta's curation of the Queer Arts Festival in Kolkata. The way things come to fruition, however, depends on our thoughtful collaborators who make our Garden possible!

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On 12th October, Nicolas and I will be presenting (via the interwebs). You can join via Instagram Live.

On View: October 3 - November 7, 2024
Time: 11.00AM – 7.00PM daily
Venue: 11 Temple Road, Mozang, Lahore (Near Regal Cinema)

Curators Talk: Join us at the venue in Lahore or via instagram Live @11 Temple Road where Nicolas and I will be presenting virtually.

The Smoke chapter illustrates most clearly of all the sections of Bagh-e Hind the way motifs and tropes were translated across different contexts, adapted to different styles, and used to represent different events and figures, from Shab-i Barat to Diwali and from Muslim courtiers to Hindu deities. In addition, its verses underscore the way in which the floral and pyrotechnic were linked in early modern South Asian thought, not only by way of poetic comparisons between sparks and flower buds but through a terminology of fireworks that describes sparklers as "flower showers" and "hand flowers".

- Nicolas Roth

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I have reformulated a small batch of the original “Smoke” perfume translation that I made in 2021, so that audiences can acquire the scent of a 17th century garden on the night of celebration. It’s the smell of agarwood and sandalwood chips burning slowly over charcoal, night blooming jasmines and tuberoses, wet earth, and the shimmering fizz of firecrackers (and gun powder).

Please hit reply to order: 6ml/ USD 75 or INR 5000; International Fedex: $75

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