Previous Exhibitions
Linnaeus 300
1st - 30th September 2007
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| Drying cardamom pods, Mauritius. |
Human beings have been using spices since time immemorial. Approximately 2600 to 2100 BC, the first authentic, fragmentary written records outlined the use of spices and herbs in Egypt. Not only were the thousands of labourers who built the Great Pyramid of Cheops given onions and garlic as medicinal herbs but spices were used in the "pickling" process of mummifying bodies of the wealthy.
The quest for spices instigated world exploration and opened up the earliest trade routes. In the days before refrigeration, spices were a particularly valuable commodity being used to preserve meats and other foods, and to mask less appetizing flavours and smells. Whilst in the palaces of Europe, cinnamon, a most expensive spice, was burnt to hide the stench of the crowds outside.
Today, pepper, vanilla, cloves, sesame, nutmeg, cinnamon, saffron and caraway are used to enhance and add flavour to many foods from curry dishes to alcoholic beverages. The oils derived from some of these are also used in perfumes, cosmetics, and medicine as well as in cooking oils.
What’s the difference between a herb and a spice? The Museum of Economic Botany’s display of 21 spices in A Spice for all Seasons display had available a sheet of Quick tips.
Quick tip: Mix tahini (from sesame seeds) with lemon juice and crushed garlic for a hot pitta bread dip.
Sharing Knowledge
15 June 2003 to 2 November 2003
‘Sharing
Knowledge’ is a rare opportunity to see some of the remarkable
ways in which Aboriginal people used their deep and intimate knowledge
of plants to live with the Australian landscape. This exhibition
of traditional and contemporary uses of plants has a particular
emphasis on South Australian Aboriginal groups and includes examples
of plants used for basketry, medicines, tools, food, hunting and
ceremonial occasions.
The exhibition celebrates Tauondi College’s 30th birthday and the close working relationship it has developed with the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide to bring about a greater cultural understanding of Aboriginal people through education and tourism initiatives. The exhibition is on display in the Museum of Economic Botany in the Adelaide Botanic Garden.
The exhibition ran from 15 June to 2 November 2003 and was open Mondays - Thursdays, 11:00am to 3:00pm and Sundays, 12noon to 4:00pm.
Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide 25th Birthday Celebrations
A
number of activities and events have been organised to mark this
special occasion so come along and join the Friends in celebrating
their 25th birthday!
Friends, Gifts & Gardens exhibition showcasing the contribution of the Friends over the past 25 years. The exhibition will run from Monday 11 November 2002 to Sunday 8 December 2002 in the Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide Botanic Garden. Entry to the exhibition is free.
Free guided walks in the Adelaide Botanic Garden, including the Friends, Gifts & Gardens exhibition, for the next two weeks on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Meet the Guide outside the Botanic Gardens Restaurant at 10:30am.
If you have any enquiries about these events telephone (61 8) 8222 9367, Monday to Friday.
Talking About Country: People and Plants
A Celebration of Migration and Local Knowledge by Stephanie Radok
3 March 2002 - 30 May 2002.
The
paintings on show here are made with watercolour paint made in Australia,
brushes made in China and paper made in France. They are painted
by an artist who was born in Melbourne, then grew up in North America
and Europe and Australia. Her father came from East Prussia, her
mother had Irish and Scottish and British heritage via New South
Wales and Victoria.
There are 256 paintings of which 85 are on show. Altogether there is a painting for every country in the world.
The plants in the paintings are not the botanic or floral emblems of the countries.
Rather each painting contains an image of a plant or a part of a plant that is found in South Australia.
The point of this contrariness at this moment in Australian history, a time of intense reflection and discussion about migration, is to make several points:
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all
countries have native plants that are loved by their people. - often these plants migrate in one way or another and are found in other countries than their place of origin.
- the movement of plants around the world has some similarities with the movement of people around the world.
- plants preceded all peoples on the earth and all names for them, and all classifications and taxonomies. In the beginning was the world, not the word. Can we imagine a time when plants and countries had no names?
- a plant and a person from almost every country in the world can now be found in South Australia, and not only in the Botanic Gardens.
- a lot of the plants we love are native to Australia, a lot are plants that have migrated and thrived here.
- the indigenous plants and those who have come in successive waves of migration form the country we live in and make it the place it is now.
- it is a place that is now aware and appreciative of the Aboriginal people and their cultures but also positive about cultures brought here over the last two hundred years. And the new ones being formed every day.
Stephanie Radok is an artist, poet, writer, art critic and editor. She has been writing regularly about art for The Adelaide Review and Artlink, as well as other journals, since 1988. She occasionally lectures at the University of South Australia, and the Adelaide Central School of Art. The topic of her recent Master of Fine Art in Studio Practice at the University of South Australia was Rapture: responding to Aboriginal Art. She is currently the guest editor of the Place/Landscape issue of Artlink Contemporary Art Magazine.
Arcadian Alchemy: Colours for Cloth from the Eucalypt Forest by India Flint
15 July 2001 to 10 February 2002.
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| Examples from the Arcadian Alchemy exhibition. |
Examples from the Arcadian Alchemy exhibition.
The genus eucalyptus, endemic to Australia, is in many ways truly remarkable. Capable of surviving in a wide range of climates, they have a phoenixlike ability to regenerate following burning in wildfire or rabid chainsaw pruning. Economically, they have a multitude of uses including timber, bee food, floriculture, paper pulp and firewood. What is less well known is that they are also a rich source of colour for textiles through dyes extracted from their leaves. These dyes are substantive on wool and silk, meaning they will bond to these fibres without the use of chemical additives. Some eucalypts can even be used as pre-mordants for other plant dyes.
The work in this exhibition is the result of three years research into eucalyptus dyes through the School of Art at the University of South Australia. It has followed two distinct paths through the eucalypt forest, accessing material from the Currency Creek Arboretum as well as random windfalls. This has resulted in the development of two complimentary bodies of work in which the structured order of the arboretum samples is supplemented by the wandering narrative of the wild forest, realised as a series of seven large garment forms. These are constructed in wool felt, with inclusions of woven silk and cotton. The brewing of dyes, the magical luminous imprint of the eucalyptus leaf on the felt, have inscribed stories on the surface. The dresses, using felt as mnemonic metamorphic material, refer to stories of place and displacement, of wandering and wonder, and that past which is another country. They are husks which tell of beings long gone. In their shadows are the forests of legend and history, and the faerie tales on which I was raised. The arboretum samples illustrate the 'eco-print' © developed as a means of efficiently testing eucalypts for potential colour yield.
Extract from Arcadian Alchemy: Colours for Cloth from the Eucalypt Forest catalogue by India Flint.
Profile of India Flint. Her website.
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