Nature does not exist around us. Rather, it would be right to say that we are a negligible part of this amorphous and ineffable nature. Its presence is inevitable in all our lives, and its patterns are woven into the everyday fabric of life — the delicate geometry of a flower, the various forms of clouds, the spirals of branches, the marks on the moon, and the scattered stars. We walk past these patterns every day, often without noticing them.
But what if we pause just for a moment and look closer? What if we saunter through bare nature just to return to an empty canvas or a blob of clay? With a painting, a sculpture, or an installation, we have a new lens to look at the world that is displayed at the Kadambari Art Gallery in the exhibition, ‘Patterns in Nature’.
Curated by art educator and art therapist Diana, this show began with a biodiversity walk proposed by the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT), an initiative that brought children into the Irular settlement across the bank. The walk, titled ‘Walking with the Irular,’ was conceived by the trust’s education and awareness division, commonly known as ‘Nature Ed’. While Diana initially saw it as a “great and lovely initiative”, it also made her pause and question what her own role in such an experience could be and what might remain with the children once the walk was over.
After all, she has spent 24 years as an educator and has come to believe deeply in the ripple effect of an idea. “When you start a lesson or an idea, there’s a snowball effect. It always gives you a beautiful memory, a permanent take-home knowledge for the children,” she shares from personal experience.
The biodiversity walk was more than just learning for the children. They were asked to look closely to spot patterns in the world they were moving through. There were striped ladybugs, snakes, red chameleons, birds, insects, and countless other small wonders that might otherwise have gone unnoticed in this fast-paced world.
For Diana, the snakes proved particularly fascinating. The children saw them up close, observed their skins, and discovered the tessellated patterns formed by their scales. “I realised that if you leave the snake alone, it does not harm you. And that for me was a learning,” she shares.
What Diana and the children saw outside became the starting point for what happened inside the classroom. Diana brought the idea of patterns back into her art room. Soon, the children were noticing and pointing them out everywhere.
Even in the tiniest thengai poo, something that might ordinarily escape attention, there was a pattern. There were patterns that nature creates almost instinctively, such as the Fibonacci sequence, constellations, and geometries. A cauliflower, for instance, became an introduction to the Fibonacci sequence. Rosary pea, or gundumani seeds, became material for making an installation. The biodiversity walk gradually transformed into a three-month-long artistic exploration.
Paintings, sculptures, and installations have come together in a celebration of the patterns found in nature. The field trip has grown into a collective body of work by 25 young artists between the ages of nine and 24. The artworks include submissions from artists living in Singapore and Malaysia, making this an international exhibition.
For Diana, however, this first edition of the exhibition is not merely about the finished artworks. She says, “I don’t want them (the children) to just submit an artwork and exhibit it. I want them to feel that weight of nature and shout so loud through their work saying, ‘Protect Nature.’” This intention sits at the heart of the exhibition.
The patterns are the entry point; the larger conversation is about the environment and our relationship with it. Diana hopes the children will not simply reproduce what they have observed, but translate their sense of wonder into a voice for conservation. It is also why she wants environmentalists, naturalists, poets, and anyone who loves nature to walk into the exhibition not merely to look at the works, but to speak to the young artists behind them, engage with their ideas, and encourage them.
Diana believes that the interactions would further help the children look at nature a little more closely than they did before, fulfilling the purpose of the show.
‘Patterns in Nature’ is on display at Kadambari Art Gallery, DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum, till October 10, between 10 am and 6.30 pm.