The Singh Twins light up the darkness of empire and botany

Daniel Nelson

The Singh Twins deliver their latest artistic salvo on empire, trade, and this time, botany.

Their show at a gallery in Kew Gardens is literally illuminating. As you enter you are surrounded by huge lightbox works on the walls, bursting with colour, allusion and detail. So much detail you need to check out the explanatory captions, who’s who and what’s what.

There are other, smaller works, too, allegorical portraits showcasing the symbolism, mythologies and folklore of a range of plants including saffron, poppies, tulips and pomegranate. A short film and punchy poem, King Cotton: An Artist’s Tale offers a potted history of the commodification of cotton in colonialism, empire and of course today.

The twins’ imaginative interpretation of the mythologies of plants and the colonial history of botany is topped by damning quotations perched high on the gallery walls, such as: “The failure of the English to render races in tropical countries ... happy is due to the fact that … they go to rob them of raw material and not to develop native races and native agriculture.”

Yes, it’s didactic, but many of the references are varied and fascinating, from the origin of Piccallili to the symbolism and folklore of herbs and spices, from a floor pattern that imitates the Church of St Xavier in the former Portuguese settlement of Goa to pictures of Cromwell and Cortes the conquistador as Satan.

The show entertainingly brings to life “the entangled histories of botany and colonialism found in Kew’s collection”, and the entanglement is further emphasised in a sister exhibition of 52 “lost” botanical drawings by Indian artists in the period 1790-1850.

The stillness and gimlet focus of the drawings and the dim lighting make a startling contrast to the profusion of the Singh Twins.

Here, too, there are lessons to be learned: the Calcutta Botanical Garden was founded in 1787, in the wake of the Bengal Famine that killed an estimated 10 million people as a result of drought, crop failure and East India Company policies.

Also in the wake of the famine came the boom in opium production. The Company cynically and ruthlessly exported it to China, with devastating results.

Kew has done a great job in rescuing and reassembling these botanical drawings and, for once, the artists’ names are known and inscribed on the walls, recognition of their knowledge and skill.

* The Singh Twins: Botanical Tales and Seeds of Empire + Flora Indica: Recovering the lost histories of Indian botanical art, two exhibitions exploring art, empire and the enduring significance of plants, free with entrance to Kew, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens, Richmond, TW9 3AE until 12 April. Info: Singh Twins