BOTANICA 2023 DE MATERIA MEDICA

PLANTS CAN BE A SALVE TO THE SOUL, BUT THEY ALSO OFFER MEDICINAL BENEFITS IN THE PHYSICAL REALM, A SUBJECT THIS YEAR’S BOTANICA SETS OUT TO EXPLORE. SUE WANNAN REPORTS.

Two thousand years ago a Greek army doctor wrote a five-volume book on herbal medicine that became one of the most influential works of its kind.

De Materia Medica (On Medical Material) covered around 600 plants, along with therapeutically useful animal and mineral products, and included the use and properties of about 1,000 mostly plant-derived drugs. The precursor to modern pharmacopeias, it was widely used and added to by the Greeks, Romans, Indians, Arabs and Europeans until about 1600 AD.

The term “materia medica” came to mean all knowledge about therapeutic medicine (what we call pharmacology).

People all around the world, in all cultures and ages, have used plants as medicines. The World Health Organisation estimates that even today 80% of the world's population depends mainly on traditional remedies and that perhaps two billion people are largely reliant on medicinal plants. In other words, you’d be hard pressed to name a plant that hasn’t, somewhere, at some time, in some way, been used to cure some ailment or affliction.

All of which means that the artists taking part in this year’s Botanica had a broad base from which to draw, as they sought to create works focusing solely on medicinal plants.

Botanica – de Materia Medica also gave artists the ability to venture beyond the strictures of formal botanic art, which must always be scientifically and botanically correct. As a result, this year will see more impressionistic works, in a range of styles, compositions, media and techniques – perhaps pencil, acrylics and oils, photography, embroidery, collage, etching and so on.

There will be around 120 works, all for sale, encompassing artwork from famous internationals to brilliant newcomers.

There’s Angela Lober. At her first Botanica exhibition in 2000, three of her paintings were snapped up by a renowned New York collector. The following year her Firewheel was bought by Dr Shirley Sherwood, whose gallery in the United Kingdom houses the largest collection of contemporary botanical art in the world.

“I’ve selected native species (for Botanica 2023) as I feel they’ve been generally undervalued and have huge untapped potential in conventional medicine,” says Lober.

Look for her Tuckeroo painting. This Australian rainforest tree bears quite beautiful yellow fruit, with orange and black seeds. An Indigenous plant food, it has been discovered to have extraordinarily high levels of flavonoids, a potent antioxidant.

The Giant Spear Lily used on promotional material for Botanica is also one of Lober’s works. This Spear Lily is a Doryanthes, as is the more common Gymea Lily, the stem fibres of which are known to have been used by Aboriginals for bandaging wounds.

John Pastoriza-Piñol is another Botanica favourite with an international reputation. The Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Gordon Morrison, recently remarked that “PastorizaPiñol’s flowers are lush, potent, sensual celebrations of life.”

Pastoriza-Piñol is submitting Gothic Apothecary – an installation that looks backwards to an age when plants were drawn to show people how to identify and use them. Nine small watercolours (“bright and cheerful”) on vellum will include sketches of the parts of the body that the plants were used to target.

He is also submitting a large study watercolour of a Chinese magnolia. Dried magnolia flower is used in Chinese medicine to treat respiratory complaints.

A passion for painting and for what the subject represents is a common theme among Botanica artists. Leda Turner’s magnificent Cannabis sativa was painted because she and her husband are supporters of the Hunter Medical Research Institute and its long-term studies into medicinal cannabis use (a current one is treatment of leukemia in children).

“Painting for me is a mind trip – it sends me to another place,” says Turner, who was recently elected a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Art in the United Kingdom and will be exhibiting for the first time in the Society’s Plantae 2023 in London in May.

All exhibitions thrive not just on the valued stars, but also on the first-timers bringing new vibrancy and talent.

Alison Mitchell hasn’t been in Botanica before, but the broader scope of this year’s exhibition brings her work into focus.

Her oil on canvas, Digitalis + Tea, depicts foxglove tea. As well as being the source of digoxin, the drug used to prevent heart arrhythmia, Digitalis purpurea (foxglove) is also an effective poison. The painting, she insists, is a reference to [foxglove’s] use as “a treatment for dropsy and not poisoning with malicious intent.”

Citrus australasica (Australian Finger Lime) comes from Mitchell’s exhibition touring regional Australia, Unlemon – A Meandering Tale of Citrus, which aims to raise awareness of a devastating disease, Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB).

“HLB hasn’t yet got into Australia, but it’s pretty much destroyed 70% of citrus crops in Florida and California, and some experts think it’s fatal for the whole citrus species,” says Mitchell. “But it’s recently been discovered there’s a peptide in Australian Finger Limes that seems resistant. This peptide is being used as a spray, and they’re now using Australian finger lime as rootstock. Australia has more endemic citrus species than anywhere else in the world. It’s fascinating that our Finger Limes are medicinal for humans (for example as a cure for scurvy) but also medicinal for citrus species.”

Garth Henderson is another Botanica first timer. His metre-tall Fire Lily –Gloriosa superba (featured on this issue's front cover) is a knock-yoursocks-off example of botanic art meets computer 3D modelling... and then taken one step further. His approach, he says, is based on geometry rather than scientific exactness.

“As an enthusiastic horticulturist I used to grow fire lilies,” Henderson says. “They’ve got quite an exceptional structure. It’s the shape and the change of colour in the petals that got me. When they open, they’re green, and then they move through variations of green to lime, to orange, to red, all at the same time. It’s an interesting plant, completely toxic, every part of it, and yet it’s so alluring and stunning to look at.”

Gloriosa originates from the tropical and southern regions of Africa and Asia. It has many uses in treatments of arthritis, diabetes, anxiety, intestinal disorders, endoparasitic infections and snakebite.

“I normally work in black and white, and this was one of my first efforts applying colour to 3D models. I started it about seven years ago, and it got put on the back-burner while I concentrated on Australian plants. Up until the point it was printed, I wasn’t certain if it was finished yet, but I think it’s right. I’ve been looking at the 18th century Dutch masters, their iconic floral still lifes, and trying to achieve the representation of texture and form through their subtle directional lighting techniques.”

Botanica de Materia Medica is sponsored by Tattersalls Club, Taylors Wines and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

BOTANICA – DE MATERIA MEDICA

29 JULY–13 AUGUST, 10AM–4PM

Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Garden

Entry is free, and all works will be for sale, with commission going towards a range of programs across the Gardens.

FRIDAY JULY 28, 4PM–6PM

Join us at the exhibition’s official opening – a ticketed event at which you will be able to purchase artworks before the doors open to the general public. There will also be an opportunity to meet this year's artists and curators, while enjoying a glass of Taylors wine and some delicious canapés.

To find out more or purchase opening tickets please scan the QR code.