This major exhibition explores the abundant beauty of the botanical world and the threats that assail it. The Botanical: Beauty and Peril draws from the renowned Janet Holmes à Court Collection and the AGWA Collection to present a vivid, involving and sometimes disturbing journey through the diverse representation by Australian artists of the glorious kingdom of plants.
From wildflower rooms to bush fire photography, the show both celebrates the natural beauty of landscapes and plants, and raises bracing issues about environmental destruction and the land rights of Australia’s First Peoples. By turns immersive, stimulating, moving and inspiring, the exhibition is designed to stimulate conversations about our botanical world and how we live in it, and live with it.
Image: Conor O'Brien, Bushfire 2004 (detail). Digital print, 3/5, 66.3 x 96.8 cm (image). State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2009.
