Front Gallery, 10th February–7th March 2010

In its engagement with the natural world at both an aesthetic and scientific level, Botanica 2010, celebrates important aspects of the artist’s role in the nineteenth century. However, to assume that a contemporary body of work based on 19th values is simply of passing or minor relevance today, would be a mistake.

As both detached observer and recorder of the natural world, any serious Victorian watercolourist who rendered the small detail of native flora, addressed scientific accuracy and also implicated the presence of a divine guiding hand in nature’s construction. In Canterbury in the 1860s, geologist, musician, artist and founder of the Canterbury Museum, Julius von Haast, lectured on the natural world, drawing attention to both a physical entity and the spiritual force of its creation. Haast, like many artists and scientists of his generation, was influenced by German physician Carl Carus who recommended that ‘artists study vegetation, climate, rock formations and the like in order to know Nature as a reality both concrete and spiritual and to experience it not as something inert, but as a living organism.’

This appreciation and intention to comprehend the natural world is no less important to humanity in the 21st century and as a serious oeuvre, botanical art retains the capacity to inform, educate and persuade a gallery audience. Certainly, these intentions remain fundamental to Botanica 2010, an exhibition which showcases recent works by artists/members of the Botanical Art Society of New Zealand. Participating members residing within New Zealand include; Janet Marshall from Nelson, and Jo Ogier from Christchurch.

(Members of the Botanical Art Society of New Zealand meet monthly at The Lodge. Mona Vale, 40 Mona Vale Road, Fendalton).