In India, flowers are part and parcel of our lives from birth to death - as offerings, as blessings, as adornment, as medicine, as food and also as a sign of love and sharing. Over the years, with the critical readings of fragrances, we have found how aromas can evoke memory, how they are responded to by different genders and how floral perfumes also become mediators of desire and pleasure. At our Online Talk #FlowerPower, art historian Dr Alka Pande explores the floral essence and provides new perceptions and interpretations of flowers.

About the speaker

Dr Alka Pande is an art historian and taught Art History at Panjab University for more than two decades. She has also taught Art and Aesthetics at the Delhi College of Art, NID and the DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore. Her major fields of interest are gender identity and sexuality, and traditional arts. She is responsible for setting up museums (Divine Gesture, Udaipur City Palace, Kanha Museum, Singinawa) and is on the Advisory Committee of the Bihar Museum. Currently, Dr Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.