In Return to the Garden, Samanta's overarching practise of re-purposing memories embedded in objects of the past, and a consistent dedicated hand made germination based iconography, coalesce. Vintage mounted photographs from early 20th century with their sepia toned aging are overlaid with red ink drawings of foliage infused with foetal motifs, made painstakingly by a hand-dipped nib and stylus, then hand cut and applied. This makes for an interesting contrast of life, through its germinating flora, and also the cycle of passing on from life, through the memories of those that lived more than a 100 years ago. The the time-consuming process of her drawing method along with the choice of historical objects also allude to the temporality of life. With all these stories, this work re looks at memory, the cyclic reality of life and death, and the literal garden of meeting for these truths.

Written by Shaleen Wadhwana