SOMNIUM SEMINIBUS II | 2018
Somnium Seminibus II is a continuation of our earlier botanical inquiries. The idea of Somnium Seminibus was hatched during a visit to the Rani Bagh Botanical Gardens in Mumbai. A visualization of a reverie, the project attempts to construct a fact-sketch: a derivation of what a lucid dream could look like. The series revolves around exploring the idea of a journey, both inwards and outwards. We have long been painting dreams, always returning to the notion of space as constantly exploding and free-flowing. We expose a tension between bubbles of surreal vision and our carefully stored memories. Our dreams are continuously fuelled by our aspirations and yearnings. Somnium Seminibus begun as an exercise with a humble approach: to illustrate the flora present in the Rani Bagh Botanical Gardens, Mumbai. The compositions that emerge enables intrinsic thinking about the natural matter that exists around us. The symbiotic quality of elements in nature drives us to interrogate their origins, which are embellished and enriched through mythic stories and folklore. The series challenges our way of looking at nature and proposes a walking dream through the path of the botanical garden.