As winter darkness looms, the Aga Khan Museum’s expansive new multimedia exhibition “Night in the Garden of Love” by British artist Shezad Dawood offers a seasonal reprieve, rich with the jewelled colours, sounds, textures and even scents of an imagined place that, at times, feels familiar, but will send anyone who enters the museum’s second floor deep into another realm, bursting with optimistic beauty in the face of environmental destruction.

Conceived about a decade ago, the name of Dawood’s touring exhibition and its inspiration are taken from a 1988 futuristic lyrical novella written by Yusef Lateef.