01 · Graphene
Single sheet, infinite lattice
One atom thick. Two hundred times stronger than steel. Carbon arranged as a hexagonal lattice — the same geometry as a Mughal jali.
Carbon, refracted through an Indian lattice.
Six panels, six aspects of carbon — each a glassmorphic window onto the element that binds Indian landscape, science, and ornament.
One atom thick. Two hundred times stronger than steel. Carbon arranged as a hexagonal lattice — the same geometry as a Mughal jali.
The Golconda mines once gave the world its most legendary stones. Same atom, different geometry — sp³ rather than sp².
Mango wood, sal, neem — reduced in the kiln to porous black carbon. Filters the Ganges, cooks the dal.
Gujarati cotton fibres are long carbon polymers. The kapas in the field is a vertical store of atmospheric carbon.
CO₂ dissolves in monsoon clouds and falls as weak carbonic acid — sculpting the Deccan basalt over millennia.
Curcumin, capsaicin, eugenol — the molecules that flavour an Indian kitchen are all benzene rings, their own little hexagons.
The hexagon is older than chemistry. Long before Kekulé dreamt of benzene, Mughal craftsmen carved hexagonal jali screens into red sandstone — the same six-fold symmetry that binds carbon to itself in graphene.
Both are filters. Both are walls and windows at once. Both let light, breath, and meaning pass through their carbon-based frames.
A cotton field reduced to teal and gold. The same duotone the eye performs at dusk — and the same two tones we use to chart carbon across this site.