{"id":676948,"date":"2026-01-06T04:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:47:25","slug":"at-londons-kew-gardens-the-dark-side-of-botany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676948\/","title":{"rendered":"At London\u2019s Kew Gardens, the Dark Side of Botany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"A<\/a>A work in \u201cThe Singh Twins: Botanical Tales and Seeds of Empire.\u201d Photo: Ines Stuart-Davidson, courtesy Kew Gardens<\/p>\n

Kew Gardens is the world\u2019s largest and most diverse botanical garden, with more than 8.5 million plant specimens, but behind the glorious gardens and stately fa\u00e7ade of the beloved British institution lies the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Two hard-hitting exhibitions mounted by the Royal Botanic Gardens are currently shedding light on the dark practice of economic botany: the sourcing of plants from around the globe that increased the empire\u2019s wealth (e.g., cotton, tea, indigo and spices) often caused immense harm to local populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlora Indica: Rediscovering the lost histories of Indian botanical art\u201d is an exhibition of 52 illustrations by Indian artists, commissioned by British botanists between 1790 and 1850 and drawn from Kew\u2019s vast collections. Many of these delicate, impossibly detailed drawings of plants, fruit and flowers native to India\u2014some attributed, others by unknown artists\u2014have never been shown before and were rescued from the vaults by curators Dr. Sita Reddy<\/a> and Henry Noltie<\/a>. They look harmless, fragile and beautiful, but they served a more devious purpose. The East India Company\u2014a firm originally formed to trade with India but later responsible for taking over large parts of it\u2014commissioned these works to document the region\u2019s botanical riches, which they then plundered for imperial gain.<\/p>\n

Around the corner is \u201cBotanical Twins and Seeds of Empire,\u201d with work by British-Indian artists The Singh Twins<\/a> that explains how economic botany operated. Visitors encounter a glorious m\u00e9lange of color, pattern, light and detail, with huge digital mixed-media works stretching across lightboxes that make one feel as if one is looking through a glittering, shifting, sparkling kaleidoscope. There is almost too much to absorb. Look closer, however, and this is not merely decorative art. It\u2019s a brutal expos\u00e9 of how plants were used to further imperialism, ironically told with humor and whimsy.<\/p>\n

Dying for a Cuppa ostensibly depicts pretty floral teacups, delicate lace doilies and women enjoying a comforting cup of tea, but on closer inspection, tiny details reveal the tea trade\u2019s dark links to the opium trade. East India Company botanist Nathaniel Wallich<\/a> first identified the commercial viability of tea, and subsequent botanists stole the secrets of its cultivation from China. Britain then established tea plantations across the Indian subcontinent, powered by indentured labor. By the 1830s, the British were smuggling Indian opium into China to pay for the tea trade, creating a generation of addicts in the process.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The Singh Twins, Dying for a Cuppa. Courtesy the Singh Twins<\/p>\n

In another work, Cinchona: What\u2019s in a Name?, a British family in India is shown reclining at Christmas in a warm domestic scene. Here again, the devil is in the details. The bark of the cinchona tree provided the world with quinine, the first effective antimalarial drug, and its value soared in the 19th Century, when malaria was one of the greatest threats to British troops in the colonies. Kew played a central role in importing large quantities of cinchona bark to Britain for study, and the spread of empire was propelled by quinine, as the Twins illustrate in the border sketches. A quote from Ronald Ross<\/a>, who discovered the malarial parasite and won the Nobel Prize in 1902, says it all: \u201cIn the coming century, the success of imperialism will depend largely upon success with the microscope.\u201d Driving the point home are quotes and images from Carl Linnaeus<\/a>, the Swedish biologist considered the father of modern taxonomy, now widely recognized for perpetuating colonial stereotypes by classifying Africans as \u201clazy\u201d and white Europeans as \u201cinventive.\u201d Scientific progress, according to the exhibition, had two faces.<\/p>\n

In other striking pieces, Queen Victoria, Henry VIII and Shakespeare appear alongside Sikh gurus, while stately palaces are juxtaposed with shrines. A witty scene shows British families enjoying traditional delicacies, such as the beloved Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, while highlighting its recipe\u2019s Bengali roots. English aristocrats sip cocoa\u2014another 18th-century favorite\u2014while we contemplate its ties to the transatlantic slave trade. Smaller works explore how plants such as chillies, saffron, tulips and poppies were revered by indigenous cultures.<\/p>\n

Throughout, there are clever nods to the murky origins of many British treats, and revealing quotes from imperial administrators, such as former British home minister William Joynson-Hicks<\/a>, who was admirably blunt: \u201cI know it is said in missionary meetings that we conquered India to raise the level of the Indians. That is cant. We conquered India as an outlet for the goods of Britain\u2026 We went with a yardstick in one hand and a sword in the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decolonization of museums<\/a> is a widely debated topic in the U.K., and the Singh Twins (who prefer to be referred to jointly) were approached by Kew Gardens after their earlier work caught curators\u2019 attention. \u201cKew wanted us to focus on their collection of botanical illustrations, which we did, but we also wanted to look at the big picture,\u201d they told Observer. \u201cWhy were these illustrations commissioned? Who commissioned them? It was all about analyzing specimens, documenting them and seeing how the Empire\u2014and other colonial powers\u2014could cultivate them in their own territories. But we also wanted to show the cultural reverence for plants in grassroots communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A work in \u201cFlora Indica.\u201d Photo: Ines Stuart-Davidson, courtesy Kew Gardens<\/p>\n

The Singh Twins\u2019 practice draws from Indian miniature painting, a form they were once encouraged to abandon in art school. \u201cOur tutors always told us to study Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, the icons of Western art.\u201d Decorative painting, especially miniature painting, was considered outdated\u2014and often still is. The twins responded by coining their own term, \u201cPast Modern,\u201d to describe their style, which blends miniature painting, Western illumination, digital art and a sharp political message. \u201cWe wanted to break away from the \u2018West is Best\u2019 narrative. After all, Western artists have always been inspired by art from the East: China, India, Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the exhibition falters slightly is in a video piece titled King Cotton, in which the Twins recite a poem outlining the colonial history of Indian cotton and the brutal destruction of India\u2019s textile industry by the British. The work lacks the subtlety and visual layering of their visual art and verges on the didactic. Still, as the Twins pointed out, education is essential when so many remain unaware. \u201cThere is often a perception in the West that colonialism was a benevolent force, something to be proud of. After all, the British built roads and canals and railways. We wanted to reset that compass.\u201d They emphasized that their goal is not to instill shame, but to encourage reflection and awareness.<\/p>\n

Many visitors, they say, are shocked by what Kew has hidden behind its exotic gardens. Some have even been moved to tears. \u201cWe have had to give out a lot of hugs,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Flora Indica<\/b><\/a>\u201d and \u201c<\/b>The Singh Twins: Botanical Tales and Seeds of Empire<\/b><\/a>\u201d are on view at Kew Gardens in London through April 12, 2026.<\/b><\/p>\n

More exhibition reviews<\/b><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"At<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A work in \u201cThe Singh Twins: Botanical Tales and Seeds of Empire.\u201d Photo: Ines Stuart-Davidson, courtesy Kew Gardens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[90509,4021,748,205653,17032,393,4845,4884,205650,101981,257,205651,205652,205649,205654,16,15,205655],"class_list":{"0":"post-676948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-art-reviews","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-carl-linnaeus","12":"tag-colonialism","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-exhibitions","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-henry-noltie","17":"tag-kew-gardens","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-nathaniel-wallich","20":"tag-ronald-ross","21":"tag-sita-reddy","22":"tag-the-singh-twins","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-william-joynson-hicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115846345507743783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}