Florilegium: botanical artists blossom at Inverleith House
New and existing works by contemporary artists Lee Mingwei, Annalee Davis, Wendy McMurdo and Lyndsay Mann join over 40 established botanical artists such as Mieko Ishikawa, Dianne Sutherland and Sansanee Deekranjang in a new exhibition at Inverleith House.
This is the first of a new programme as Inverleith House transforms into Climate House with the award of the Outset Contemporary Art Fund’s Transformative Grant.
Emma Nicolson, Head of Creative Programmes, RBGE said: “From common weeds to exotic cultivars, flowers are deeply embedded within our lives and have long been an inspiration to artists.
This visually stunning exhibition reveals how flowers can elicit cultural, historic, geographic, social and scientific ideas. Botany, the doctrine of plants, is a basis for the exhibition, drawing together work by botanical illustrators from across the globe alongside contemporary artists who explore our wider relationship to flowers and nature. The exhibition aims to shed light on the living collections of RBGE and human behaviour.
"This exhibition has something for everyone, from the beautiful detail and precision of botanical illustration to Lyndsay Mann’s storytelling in film that captures the hidden voices held in our herbarium, and Lee Mingwei’s deeply engaging ‘Invitation for Dawn’, a digital sister to his work ‘Sonic Blossom’ and an offering of a “sonic gift” of a song delivered to individuals in a live encounter with a classical opera singer via video.
"We hope the show will provoke new ways of thinking and responding to plants, and encourage visitors to treasure their encounters with the art and the amazing diversity of flora to be discovered in our Garden and Glasshouses. The year 2020 and the coronavirus is revealing truths about the fragility of our ecosystems and the need to halt biodiversity loss. At a time when our ecological future depends so much on deeper connection to the natural world, these artists present captivating and imaginative responses to plants and flowers when it could never be more important.”
10.30am - 4.30pm, Friday 16 October - Sunday 13 December 2020