Ishitaa Khemani

Nature’s Alchemy is inspired by Robert Frost’s ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, a poem that meditates on the fleeting nature of beauty. Frost suggests that the most precious moments cannot be held onto; they inevitably pass with time. Yet within nature, this passing is not simply loss but part of a continuous cycle, where fading gives way to renewal and regeneration. Ishitaa’s interpretation focuses on this cyclical rhythm, where beauty transforms rather than disappears.

Using fallen leaves as both material and metaphor, she creates embroidered
compositions of the Redbud, Smoke Bush and Black Alder trees. Through emerging blossoms, mature foliage and skeletal remnants, the work visualises multiple stages of botanical life, each plant a chapter in a larger, unfolding story and each stitch carrying a narrative, allowing the poem’s quiet truth to live on, beauty persisting through change.

Embroidery becomes a means of extending the lifespan of discarded botanical matter, transforming fallen leaves into tactile archives of seasonal change. Rooted in the belief that design should exist in dialogue with nature rather than in opposition to it, the artwork explores how biodegradable materials can be transformed into objects of adornment without losing their connection to the earth they came from, suggesting ephemerality doesn’t diminish value, rather it makes something more precious.