Exhibition – The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree

The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree was originally conceived as a trans-generational group exhibition, but has been postponed. In the meantime, we have launched this complimentary online programme of new artist commissions, podcasts, films, texts, images and audio, expanding on and enriching the ideas and issues informing the show over at www.botanicalmind.online.

Drawing on indigenous traditions from the Amazon rainforest; alternative perspectives on Western scientific rationalism; and new thinking around plant intelligence, philosophy and cultural theory, The Botanical Mind Online investigates the significance of the plant kingdom to human life, consciousness and spirituality across cultures and through time. It positions the plant as both a universal symbol found in almost every civilisation and religion across the globe, and the most fundamental but misunderstood form of life on our planet

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Art & Spirituality – Eleanor Heartney

In a recent article for Artnet, Eleanor Heartney argued that ‘spirituality is at the heart of the established canon and that mystical and occult ideas run through the works of artists as diverse as Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian, Beckman, Miró, Dove, and Klee.’ She then noted a ‘new receptivity to spirituality’ that reflects our current state of upheaval including a ‘widespread recognition that materialism has produced a climate crisis that may spell the end of life as we know it.’ As at the turn of the last century, ‘a search for alternatives has manifested itself in a surge of interest in spiritual and spiritualist concerns.’ The Botanical Mind sits neatly alongside Heartney’s article by surveying similar ideas and artists while drawing attention to contemporary artists linking spirituality to the environment and the climate emergency.

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