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"Plants in art."
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Intertwined histories : plants in their social contexts
\"How do we understand the boundaries of individual creatures? What are the systems of interdependency that bind all living creatures together? Plants were among thefirst to colonize the planet. They created the soil and the atmosphere that made life possible for animals. They are some of the largest and oldest life forms on Earth. In spite of their primacy, Western cultures have traditionally regarded plants as the lowest life forms, lacking mobility, sensation, and communication. But recent research argues that plants move and respond to their environment, communicate with each other, and form partnerships with other species. Art, poetry, and essays by cultural anthropologists, experimental plant biologists, philosophers, botanists and foresters expose the complex interactions of the vibrant living world around us and give us a lens through which we can explore our intertwined histories.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Before disenchantment
Imagine barnacle geese—creaturesthat begin life as leaves on a tree growing above water, but turn into small birds as soon as they fall in. Orthe Lamb of Tartary that gestates inside a large gourd-like fruit. These are just some of the animal and plant hybrids imagined by early modern explorers and artists to describe unfamiliar flora and fauna.
In Before Disenchantment, Peter Mason explores how naturalists grappled with the problem of representing exotic plants and animals, turning an analytic eye on the sketches of German adventurer Caspar Schmalkalden, the skilled artistic renderings of Peter Paul Rubens, the observations of Dutch beachcomber Adriaen Coenen, and the antiquarian pursuits of Nicola Fabri de Peiresc, among others.
Featuringone hundred illustrations of these unusual and captivating creatures—from camel-sheep to races of monopods and red-haired dwarves— Before Disenchantment goes beyond orthodox histories of scientific illustration and champions a sense of wonder often lost in the modern world.
eBook
My mothers' garden
Presents a series of five images entitled ‘My mothers’ garden’, in which she used an inexpensive domestic printer/scanner to scan five plants from the garden of her mother-in-law, using each image to tell a story of a woman from the past in order to foster a contemporary dialogue. Includes brief commentary about The Duchess of Marlborough, Sarah Churchill (represented by false Queen Anne’s lace); New Zealand botanist, Lucy Cranwell (Kōwhai); the author and scientist Beatrix Potter (fairy ring mushrooms); cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (Lunaria annua); and the English serial killer Catherine Wilson (colchicum). Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Journal Article
Botanical revolutions : how plants changed the course of art
\"This lush volume unearths plants' representation in and impact on art, advocating for the botanical world's rightful place in art history\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Why Look at Plants?
Why Look at Plants? proposes a thought-provoking look into the emerging cultural politics of plant-presence in contemporary art through the original contributions of artists, scholars, and curators who have creatively engaged with the ultimate otherness of plants in their work.
eBook
Botanical Speculations
Ground-breaking scientific research and new philosophical perspectives currently challenge our anthropocentric cultural assumptions of the vegetal world.As humanity begins to grapple with the urgency imposed by climate change, reconsidering human/plant relationships becomes essential to grant a sustainable future on this planet. It is in this context that a multifaceted approach to plant-life can reveal the importance of ecological interconnectedness and lead to a more nuanced consideration of the variety of living organisms and ecosystems with which we share the planet. In Botanical Speculations, researchers, artists, art historians, and activists collaboratively map the uncharted territories of new forms of botanical knowledge. This book emerges from a symposium held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in September 2017, and capitalizes on contemporary art's ability to productively unhinge scientific theories and certainties in order to help us reconsider unquestioned beliefs about this living world.
eBook
The secret language of plants : art, nature & symbolism
An elegant reference guide to the meaning of plants in art and life. From early Egyptian reverence for the acacia and the lotus, to the Victorian language of flowers and the works of Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O'Keeffe, we have long sought meaning in nature. Significance has often been ascribed to particular plants, referencing their uses as food or medicine, their associations with saints and heroes, or more abstract or aesthetic qualities like fortitude, beauty and strength. Weaving together botany, mythology, folklore, religious texts, and centuries of art and literature, this richly illustrated, elegant reference guide engages the cultural significance and underlying meanings of over fifty plants. Each entry is accompanied by a work of art or botanical illustration, bringing together the world of art and plants in an elegant and seamless fashion and deepening our understanding of how plants have been used by artists in the past and what they mean to us today. This is the ideal reference volume for the artistically inspired botanist as well as a pleasure to read and leaf through.
BOOK
Green light : toward an art of evolution
How humans' aesthetic perceptions have shaped other life forms, from racehorses to ornamental plants.Humans have bred plants and animals with an eye to aesthetics for centuries: flowers are selected for colorful blossoms or luxuriant foliage; racehorses are prized for the elegance of their frames. Hybridized plants were first exhibited as fine art in 1936, when the Museum of Modern Art in New York showed Edward Steichen's hybrid delphiniums. Since then, bio art has become a genre; artists work with a variety of living things, including plants, animals, bacteria, slime molds, and fungi. Many commentators have addressed the social and political concerns raised by making art out of living material. In Green Light, however, George Gessert examines the role that aesthetic perception has played in bio art and other interventions in evolution. Gessert looks at a variety of life forms that humans have helped shape, focusing on plants-the most widely domesticated form of life and the one that has been crucial to his own work as an artist. We learn about pleasure gardens of the Aztecs, cultivated for intoxicating fragrance; the aesthetic standards promoted by national plant societies; a daffodil that looks like a rose; and praise for weeds and wildflowers.
eBook