Tribute to the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India

Mixed-media collage 'Tribute to the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India' by Chila Kumari Burman, 2017, showing a map of India made out of a collage of elephants in different patterned papers, mounted on a pink paper. The frame embellished with mirror pieces.

Made of wrapping paper, rhinestones, glitter, ink, nepalese paper.

The map is based on one produced from the nineteenth-century Great Trigonometric Survey of India. Elephants are of great culturally significance in India, but would also have been used to carry equipment during the survey.

One of 29 works produced by Burman as a commission to accompany the Science Museum’s ‘Illuminating India’ season in 2017-18. Five works in the series feature elephants.

The works respond to objects and narratives in the history of science in India particularly to the exhibition ‘5000 Years of Science and Innovation’, as well as to the wider religious and cultural history of the sub-continent. This was Burman's first significant engagement with the history of science and medicine, with the works ranging across print, collage, photography and mixed-media, including experiments with iPad technology.