In Carnations (Series), 2020 Dianthus caryophyllus, or the carnation, originates in the Mediterranean, its wild form long transformed through centuries of cultivation. Once five-petaled, it now blooms in countless variations - an emblem of human intervention in nature? Named by Theophrastus from the Greek dios (divine) and anthos (flower), the carnation’s meanings have multiplied across cultures - love, mourning, gratitude, desire - its symbolism as mutable as its form. In Nikahetiya’s monochromatic negatives, colour and convention dissolve. Stripped of hue and cultural charge, the carnation becomes terrain - an abstract field where perception and memory are questioned, and the human impulse to assign meaning to nature quietly unravels.

Printed with archival pigment ink on 230gsm pro premium matte archival quality paper.