‘DUALITY’, a poetry and art exhibition by 14-year-old artist Mehr Dhawan, inaugurated recently, is an evocative exploration of the fragile balance between two worlds—one where nature is preserved and nurtured, and another where it has been exploited and neglected.
“Nature has always intrigued me and I find in every landscape of nature mysticism and magic. For me heaven is here. The planet, to me, a beautiful canvas where God is an artist,” says Dhawan, a student from Pathways School, Gurugram. Through paintings, installations, and free-flowing verse, her works invite viewers to experience this tension, confront uncomfortable truths, and reflect on the choices that shape the future of our planet.
Her work blends visual storytelling with poetic narrative, making sustainability not just an intellectual concept but an emotional experience. From oceans “sliced open” by human excess to poems that give voice to silent forests, ‘Duality’ challenges audiences to see beauty and destruction side by side—and choose hope over apathy.
Dhawan’s artistic journey is rooted in a deep sense of environmental stewardship. When she was three, she wished for a forest instead of toys. This early impulse grew into action—planting over 30,000 Lakshmi Taru trees with her mother, turning care for the earth into a lived practice.
Her installations, such as 'Sliced Sea' (crafted from recycled candle wicks and twine) and 'The Cry Beneath the Surface '(a resin fishbowl embedded with microplastic waste), have been widely recognised. These works use discarded materials to spark dialogue on pressing issues like ocean pollution and plastic waste.
For Dhawan, poetry is not just self-expression but survival—a way to anchor herself while amplifying the emotions and questions many others silently carry. Her poems breathe life into cities, forests, rivers, and oceans, urging readers to look closer and act with conscience. Who are her influences? “I draw inspiration from poets like Mary Oliver, Rupi Kaur, and Rabindranath Tagore—they teach me how words can hold both softness and strength. In art, I look up to Frida Kahlo for her courage to paint her truth, and to eco-artists who use their work to speak about climate change and the earth we share,” she says.
Her work insists that young people are not passive inheritors of a broken world—they are active participants in its repair and reimagining.
The exhibition is open till October 29, 10 am to 5 pm at College of Art, Tilak Marg, Bhagwan Das Lane, Mandi House