In the Dappled Light: Sarmaya's Living Landscape
Now that the doors have quietly closed on In the Dappled Light at Mumbai’s Sarmaya Arts Foundation, what remains isn’t a single image or object, but a feeling. A flicker of filtered light, the scent of rain-soaked earth, a deep breath taken in a room full of trees you couldn’t see.
This was no ordinary exhibition. Sarmaya, the so-called 'museum without boundaries,' has long made it its mission to tell India’s stories in unexpected ways - through objects, yes, but also through living traditions, forgotten wisdoms, and quieter truths. With In the Dappled Light, it invited visitors to walk not just through a gallery, but into the landscape itself.
The River Flowing Through Me, 2023, KP Pradeep Kumar. © Sarmaya Arts Foundation.
Opening in late March 2025, the exhibition took over Sarmaya’s heritage archive in the heart of Mumbai’s Fort district, transforming Lawrence Mayo House into a space where past and present, land and lore, met under a leafy canopy. The show looked at how India’s natural world - its forests, flora, and sacred groves - has shaped artistic forms, philosophies, spiritual beliefs, and systems of science. For example, in KP Pradeep Kumar's The River Flowing Through Me (above), the artists reflects on his journey through the dynamic natural surroundings of Kerala and its evolving climate concerns, creating an experience where nature serves as both a record and a reflection of the delicate balance between us all.
(T8) Gulistan, 2024, Gopa Trivedi, Watercolour and walnut ink on wasli. © Sarmaya Arts Foundation.
The exhibition bloomed with connections across centuries and across species. 17th-century folios from Hortus Malabaricus sat alongside hand-coloured lithographs of Himalayan wildflowers. A luminous Tree of Life by Kalamkari artist Niranjan Jonnalagadda, displayed its leafy glory beside a fragile mosaic of 120 poetic botanical studies by miniaturist Gopa Trivedi. The latter illustrated plants that, while foreign in origin, have become integral to Indian cultural identity. These were artworks about and of nature, reimagined and refracted through centuries of Indian thought.
But perhaps the most powerful element was its atmosphere. Designed by Pavitra Rajaram Design, the show unfolded slowly, like a forest walk. A curated 'smellscape' of tree bark, saffron and monsoon air drifted through the rooms. Sounds, short films, and playlists added layers to the experience with each piece rooted in a place, a moment, or a memory of the land.
Untitled, Hima Hariharan, 2017-2018, Watercolour, gouache, and tea-wash on handmade paper. © Sarmaya Arts Foundation.
Sarmaya founder Paul Abraham put it simply: “The forests of India have been my lifelong passion and refuge… It’s only when we truly see and appreciate our natural heritage that we feel compelled to protect it.”
In an age of climate collapse and creative fatigue, In the Dappled Light offered no manifesto. Instead, it made space for attention - for noticing, remembering, and feeling our way back into a relationship with the natural world. A world where, perhaps, the light now seems just a little brighter.
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Further Information:
Sarmaya
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Image Credits:
Lead Image: Tree Of Life (Kalamkari), 20th Century, Jonnalagadda Niranjan, Natural dye on cloth, © Sarmaya Arts Foundation.
All other images as credited in photo captions.