Within the social context of the pandemic, which created an increased collective focus on the home and garden as an expression of identity, this exhibition looks at our desire to feel kinship with the natural world.
Artists in the exhibition address how plants are owned, displayed, cultivated, and related to by contemporary culture. They examine our personal relationships with plants and how these pursuits serve aesthetic and symbolic functions beyond their ecological value. This includes the use of plants as artistic material, their objectification and commercialisation, their use as an experiential encounter with ‘nature’, and their cultivation as a form of cultural resilience.
Artists: Jordan Azcune, Christopher Bassi, Merinda Davies, Jo Grant, Sophie Penkethman-Young, and Kai Wasikowski
Curated by Sarah Thomson
Image: Twin Paw Paw by Christopher Bassi, 2022.