Botanica de Materia Medica
Australia’s leading contemporary botanical art exhibition Botanica returns to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Over 50 contributing artists, including many preeminent botanical artists from Australia and beyond will be on show.
MEDIA RELEASE
Background: Plants used for treatment and healing are at the very heart of Botanic Art. This began with the scientific illustration of medicinal and culinary plants. Among the earliest recorded examples are the illustrations by a Greek physician Cretavas in the 1st ce ntury BC and the 5-volume medical manuscript, De Materia Medica, written between 50 and 70AD by Dioscorides. It was such an effective and easily understood means of recording and explaining medicinal herbals that the Materia persisted in use until the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Western style Botanical Art evolved with the great botanical expeditions of the 17th and 18th centuries and better printing techniques. More people could access books and art as domestic decoration became popular. Portraits of plants came to be appreciated for their beauty as well as their scientific description. Botanical art in other styles, such as the works of British Pre-Raphaelite artists and the lavish floral arrangements of the Dutch masters, also became popular. Taking our cue from there, we, too, are now encouraging an evolution to show the art of the plant represented in a wider range of styles, compositions, media, and techniques.
The focus is medicinal plants; since the origin of much of our modern medicine lies in ancient and traditional potions, tinctures, and supplements, even some of the drinks and cocktails we enjoy today. Healing remedies of other cultures and traditional medicines, such as Indigenous bush medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and Indian Ayurvedic medicine are explored in this exhibition.
Venue: Lion Gate Lodge Garden, The Royal Botanic Garden, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney
Opening Hours: 10am - 4pm Daily
Exhibition dates: Saturday 29 July to Sunday 13 August
Opening Night: Friday 28 July, 4pm - 6pm
Exhibition online at:
https://botanicgardensgallery.com.au/botanica-de-materia-medica/
Fire Lily / Gloriosa superba / 2023
Edition 1 of 5
1040mm H x780mm W Framed
Giclée Print on 210gsm Ivory Archival Matte rag
Gloriosa superba (Fire Lily)
A pharmaceutically important alkaloid, Colchicine and its derivatives are found in the tubers and seeds.
Colchicine is a substitute for those who are unable to tolerate nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which are used to treat gout. Colchicine increases levels of anti- inflammatory mediators while shows inhibition of multiple pro-inflammatory mechanisms. Colchicine has the potential of the palliative treatment of gastric cancer and it is also used to prevent pericarditis. This plant has shown many pharmacological activities like anti-arthritic, analgesic, uterotonic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, antioxidant, antithrombotic, anti-diabetic, and anti-anxiety.
As an ethnomedicine in India, it is an important ingredient in 159 Ayurvedic formulations.
Ayurvedic treatment combines products (mainly derived from plants, but may also include animal, metal, and mineral), diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
As per Ayurveda, this plant is useful in leprosy, piles, fistula, gout, gynecological disorders, burn wounds, goiter, lymphadenitis, scrofula, hair loss, insect bite, oral diseases, vitiligo, intestinal disorders, cough, cholera, colic, kidney problems, typhus, itching, sprains, impotence, smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many types of endoparasitic diseases.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Nilivan Adams, Julianne Ross Allcorn, Beverley Allen, Ro Bancroft, Debbie Bourke, Debbie Chirnside, Niki Coates, Alissa Cook, Elizabeth Cooper, Rosemary Donnelly, Amanda Farquharson, Kerry Ferguson, Lindsey Goff, Pat Hall, Anders Hallan, Anne Hayes, Garth Henderson, Tanya Hoolihan, Adrienne E Hunt, Kerriann Indorato, Christine Johnson, Linda Joyce, Sooka Kim, Jenny Lee, Angela Lober, Linda Lunnon, Vickie Marchant , Janet Matthews, Debra Meier, Alison Mitchell, Christina Mucha, Clare Nicholson, Kate Nolan, Yoon Jong Oh, John Pastoriza-Piñol, Julie Patterson, Pamela Pauline, David Reynolds, Anne Saville, Shirpra Shah, Lisa Shepherd, Avantika Shrivastav, Glenn Smith, Tina Spira, Claire Stack, Ruth Thompson, Leda Turner, Bronwyn Van de Graaff, Anna van der Gardner, Anna Voytsekhovich, Penny Walton, Peta West.
