Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World

Exhibition

Stephen Goddard, curator

March 27, 2018–July 15, 2018

mobile app exhibition

Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World explores humankind’s deep connections and fascination with the plant kingdom through works from the Spencer’s collection, a number of significant loans, and commissions by living artists. The exhibition is organized through several themes: artists' studies of plant forms; historic and contemporary plant lore; art dealing with ecological sustainability and biomechanical plant hybrids; plants in a post-human world; and works dealing with current scientific research on how plants sense the world and communicate.

An accompanying publication documents the project and include brief texts by artists and curators as well as biologists, ecologists, and philosophers. A range of educational programs will engage university students, youth and families, scholars, and citizen scientists with the exhibition's central themes and artists.