The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree
Gallery Link + Video Walkthrough with Curators Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark
The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree brings together the work of over 50 artists, spanning more than 500 years, to investigate the ongoing significance of the plant kingdom to human life, consciousness and spirituality. In doing so it highlights the subjectivity and being of plants, their influence on various knowledge-forms and wisdom-traditions, and how we engage with and activate them in culture, counter-culture, art and music.
Originally conceived as an exhibition – which was postponed to September 2020 due to the lockdown – the project continues to grow into new forms and launched online in May 2020. Including a new series of podcasts, films, music, images, writing and commissions, artists and thinkers will expand on many of the ideas and issues raised in The Botanical Mind, issues that are now more relevant than ever.
A 224-page fully illustrated publication was launched in June 2020 as a companion to the overall project, including essays by the curators and contributions from scholars from the main areas covered by the exhibition: alchemy; art history; plant ontology; Gaian ecology; anthropology; and ethnobotany. It is be available to buy online as a resource for people enjoying the online content from home as well as accompanying the exhibition.
Curated by Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark
Eileen Agar / Anni Albers / Josef Albers / Gemma Anderson with Wakefield / Lab and John Dupré / Anna Atkins / Jordan Belson / Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater / Forrest Bess / Karl Blossfeldt / Carol Bove / Kerstin Brätsch / Andrea Büttner / Adam Chodzko / Ithell Colquhoun / Bruce Conner / Das Institut / Mirtha Dermisache / Minnie Evans / Cerith Wyn Evans / Charles Filiger / Giorgio Griffa / Brion Gysin / Ernst Haeckel / Anna Haskel / Friedrich Wilhelm Heine / Tamara Henderson / Channa Horwitz / Textiles by artisans from the Huni Kuin (Kaxinawa) people / Carl Gustav Jung / Hilma af Klint / Joachim Koester / Rachid Koraïchi / Josef Kotzian / Emma Kunz / Yves Laloy / Ghislaine Leung / Linder / Simon Ling / André Masson / John McCracken / Henri Michaux / Matt Mullican / Wolfgang Paalen / Paul Păun / Steve Reinke and James Richards / Edith Rimmington / Daniel Rios Rodriguez / Textiles by artisans from the Shipibo-Conibo people / Penny Slinger / F. Percy Smith / Janet Sobel / Philip Taaffe / Fred Tomaselli / Delfina Muñoz de Toro / Alexander Tovborg / David Tudor / Lee Ufan / Scottie Wilson / Terry Winters / Adolf Wölfli / Anna Zemánková / Henriette Zéphir