Olivia Fraser

In this body of work, the artist explores the union of opposites—bees with lotus, red with white—through iterative patterning and restrained colour. As with Scent of the Lotus I, the work continues to investigate the Indian artistic concept of rasa: emotion, flavour, essence, scent.

The lotus holds a central place in Indian iconography, while the bee, though less common in visual traditions, has long been celebrated in poetry. One verse from the Nitaai Veda evokes the metaphor beautifully:

“When the Krishna bumblebee approached the lotus flower of Radharani’s face, He became completely maddened by its fragrance, buzzing He continually hovered about it.”

This intertwining of sensory experience resonates with meditation, in which all senses are harnessed—sight, touch, smell, sound. The early eighteenth-century Gheranda Samhita offers a striking visualization of fragrance:

“In every direction there are Kadamba trees and abundant flowers and it is ringed with a thick Kadambari forest like a stockade, where the scents of malati, mallika, jati, champa, parijata and sthalapadma flowers perfume every quarter.”

Sound too plays its part in yogic practice, as in the posture Bhramarikumbaka:

“Slowly draw in air and perform Bhramarikumbaka.
Exhale it very slowly and then the sound of a bee will arise.
On hearing the sound of a bee from within, lead the mind there.
Samadhi will occur, together with the bliss arising from the realization, ‘I am that.’”

The palette deepens this dialogue of opposites. Blue and gold, universally resonant with the sacred, recall Vishnu and his incarnation as Krishna; red and white, by contrast, echo Tantric principles of female and male energies. Through these convergences—of bee and lotus, sound and scent, colour and form—the work creates a space for rasa, an essence that is at once sensory and spiritual.