Titled by a love song to a tree from the opera Serse (1738) by Georg Frideric Handel and dovetailing with the 20th year of Project 88's founding by Sree Goswami in 2006, this curatorial project takes up the existential power of trees. Powered by a wide range of contemporary artists invited from an open call for works, the show wonders at arboreal presence and indifference, at the persistence of trees regardless of us and the influence of valuing them through the filter of our needs. This is hardly to downplay the environmental virtuosity that trees have always possessed. But cherishing trees chiefly as instruments of our survival circumvents their essential qualities: their tree-ishness, a phrase borrowed from the enthusiastic scientific research of tree scientist Harriet Rix. This existential process—achieved by evolutionary twists and hazards—has been shaping earth uniquely and phenomenally and, by that turn, its beauty and stupefying variety. Even our admiration for trees is a learned ability. Their forms have cultivated in us an aesthetic sense, a feel for beauty that attunes us to their extraordinariness as entities in themselves. Enjoying them inclines us to cherish them, a fecund yet neglected loop that emboldens Rix to revisit the deceptively obvious: "The greatest wisdom is understanding that appreciation and conservation are two sides of the same coin." That trees by what they inherently are act upon and enlighten us—magnets of material, movement, and mind.
Part 1 currently on view
Bansri Om Chavda
These works—Rustle, Crackle, Sway, Rend and Drizzle—emerge from listening to trees as living witnesses: aesthetic, ecological, and deeply participatory presences within life on earth. Each painting responds to sound—the friction of bark, the sway of branches, the cracking of dry wood, and the subtle reception of drizzle settling through layers of leaves and shade. Rather than illustrating trees directly, the works attempt to encounter their inherent “tree-ishness” through sonic memory, contemplation, and minimal ink gestures. The series forms part of my ongoing project ‘Subtle Connections’, where recorded and designed sound environments—including forests, seasonal transitions, and natural ruptures—are translated into visual form through ink, charcoal, and mark-making. Here, painting becomes an act of listening. The project also imagines future presentations with accompanying sound installations or audio booths, inviting viewers to build their own sensory and emotional encounters with trees, sound, and shelter.
Palvi Godambe
The works presented in this exhibition are part of an ongoing exploration of eco-printing on fabric, where natural elements such as leaves, flowers, and plant matter are directly transferred onto textile surfaces. Rather than controlling the outcome, the process allows for unpredictability—marking the fabric through heat, pressure, and time. These pieces engage with ideas of impermanence, trace, and transformation. The imprints function as both image and residue, capturing a fleeting moment
of contact between organic material and cloth. Subtle variations in tone, texture, and form emphasize the role of chance, making each work unique and unrepeatable. Situated between painting and textile, the works challenge traditional notions of authorship and control, foregrounding process as a collaborative act with nature. This body of work reflects an ongoing investigation into sustainability, material sensitivity, and the poetic potential of natural processes.
Debabrata Hazra
The three paintings on view explore the indeterminate space between nature and abstraction that has fascinated the artist for decades. These works are also the reflection of the artist’s multi-sensory experiences of vegetation and geology in his childhood days. Debabrata was born in the undivided district of Midnapore in West Bengal which had features of dry peninsular Sal forest, undulating terrain and lateritic red soil towards the western parts to the long stretches of green paddy fields, wetlands, swamps, creeks, alluvium along the rivers and sandy saline soil in the coastal belt. The works are populated by forms seemingly of trees, the wilderness, the play of light and shadow along with the drama that takes place unnoticed in nature —which encourage a range of associations with the vigour that is evident in nature. The artist is also deeply interested in the cycle of damage and repair, ever-present in nature, which explains the gestural aggressiveness in these works where forms and shapes emerge organically, often through happy accidents. He has chosen the process of painting itself as the theme of his work and aims to capture the fluidity by which the image becomes the painting and vice-versa.
Rahul Juneja
The works in the exhibition are part of an ongoing project, ‘Crackle of an Undying Log’. The project brings together ecology, mythology and technology, spanning across moving images, holograms, installations and photographs. It thinks about the kalpavriksha, a magical wish granting tree in the Indian cosmology; which only fulfils wishes of the pure hearted- situating the moral deeply in the information and ecological landscape. It opens up how we think of archives, information, extraction and morality in relation to wider systems of ecology. Epistemic Fruit is a photographic print, thinking about the forbidden fruit present in different mythological systems. Here, the consumption of fruit doesn’t grant knowledge- but reveals templates and systems which shape knowledge. Finding Kalpavriksha is a single channel video, using a depth sensor to map the ever changing shape of mythical kalpavriksha; The tree, becomes a harborer of liquid histories and archives which exist outside human linearity- morphing constantly as the sensor attempts to map it. Dangling Dews is a single channel video, compiling three anecdotes around resinous archives, a burnt mythical eye, and an undying log which keeps crackling. The work positions the tree as technology of enlightenment that spans across mythical, industrial and ecological conditions.
R. Magesh
The works have evolved as expressions of nostalgia for the absent and a silent grief for the memories of the lost. I have always been fascinated with the ever changing landscapes around me and the withering away of the ecosystem around us under the nonchalant march of time. My practice engages into depictions of cerebral spaces where the narratives of isolation and loss were built up with abandonment. I intended to portray the overwhelming nature of architecture resulting from negligence of the space which embodies the remorse that I feel from the loss of humanity and life in the whirlwind of civilization and development.
Nisha Manavi
These works are part of a series called , ‘I Dance, As I Grow’. The works present trees as powerful living beings filled with movement, strength, and emotion. The branches, trunks, and roots twist, bend, and spread across the surface as if they are dancing. These unusual forms are inspired by the natural energy of trees and their silent ability to survive through changing seasons, harsh weather, and human intervention. The twisted trunks and roots represent resilience and courage. Even when pushed, cut, or shaped by outside forces, the tree continues to grow. Instead of breaking, it adapts. The roots hold the earth firmly, showing stability and connection, while the branches move freely, expressing freedom and life. Their dancing forms create a sense of rhythm, making the trees appear alive and expressive rather than still objects in nature. Through this series, I want to highlight the boldness of trees and their quiet strength. Trees are often seen as background elements in our surroundings, but these works bring attention to their presence, endurance, and individuality. The works also reflect the relationship between nature and life itself, showing that true strength can exist in flexibility, movement, and the ability to continue growing despite difficulties.
Robin Rawat
The question of truth is a key force driving this series. The mimesis of nature is brought into question. There is no singular truth in a landscape; abstraction becomes the language to address its constructed nature. The question persists: is the landscape inherently abstract? The horizon is removed. It is not something trees ask for, and standing within a forest does not produce it. This deliberate absence disrupts conventional ways of seeing and unsettles the expectation of landscape as ordered and pleasant. Instead of offering a distant view, the work insists on immersion and proximity. The viewer is no longer positioned outside the scene but drawn into a space between trees where orientation becomes uncertain. In this sense, the horizon operates as a visual fiction. These works do not depict a literal forest but aim for evocation, where trees emerge as active presences within ecosystems that remain unfamiliar and unresolved.
