Artwork by Annie Rushton Magnolia from the exhibition Port Arthur: Exotic Garden (c) Botaniko
Stately trees and scattered flowers bloom year after year in the gardens of Port Arthur. They are bright and tangible links to the convicts who dug the soul and planted the seeds and the men and women who treasured them as they grew 150 years ago.
The exhibition: Port Arthur: Exotic Garden – Part 2, opening on Saturday 28 January, focuses on the medicinal, culinary and industrial plants grown during the 1800s at Port Arthur. All were considered essential in some way for survival, providing food, medicine and timber for shelter and garden infrastructure. At the same time, many also represent a gentler aspect of life at the penal settlement to counterbalance the harshness and brutality of daily life in an isolated colonial prison.
A walk through the gardens today can lead us back to another time, revealing human stories with which we can all identify – loneliness and homesickness, the desire to create a haven of beauty in an otherwise harsh and unfamiliar environment and a driving passion to understand the natural world.
The artworks on display are presented by members of Botaniko, a small group of botanical artists living in and around Hobart. Many of its member have studied with one of Australia’s leading botanical artists – Lauren Black.
Botaniko was first invented by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority to present an exhibition in 2015 portraying the plants of the 1800s in watercolour, pencil and mixed media on paper as well as with textiles.
Port Arthur: Exotic Garden – Part 2 opens on Saturday 28 January 2017 from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily in the Asylum at the Port Arthur Historic Site. It will run for two months until 23 March 2017.
Visitors to the Port Arthur Historic Site can also enjoy daily theatre performances and refreshments served in style at the Visiting Magistrates House daily from now until Easter.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Marketing and Communications Manager
