On Botany

About

Studying and researching plants, Dioscorides laid the foundation for modern botanical science in the first century with De Materia Medica, his compilation on Anatolian and Mediterranean plants. Translated from Ancient Greek to Arabian and Syriac in time, the pharmacopeia is one of the oldest and most extensive source on Anatolian plants and flora. Although Dioscorides is mostly known for his works on medicine, his study on plants, where he mostly focuses on their healing powers, is considered to be the main body of work that contemporary plant research is built upon. The journey that started with Dioscorides’ work on 600 plants has today become botanical science of various sub-branches that focus on the qualitative, quantitative, and archival study of plants. The other distinguishing feature of De Materia Medica is the way in which Dioscorides records stories, myths, legends, and beliefs correlated to the plants he describes in detail under the pharmacopeia. 

“On Botany” exhibition brings together ten artists who emphasize on the relationship between botanic and art, where the artists approach botanical science from an archival and narrative perspective, and display their studies on plants in different disciplines and geographies. Partaking in these study processes, viewers find the opportunity to observe various plants from different esthetic points of view. The ten artists that approach botanical science from different perspectives concurrently start new discussions within their fields with their works under the sub and side-branches of plant biology, plant geometry, aesthetic studies on nature, healing methods through plants, and evolution of plants. A study that ranges from the depictions of extraterrestrial plants to earth’s plants on the verge of extinction, the exhibition simultaneously aims to expand the borders that define botanical terminology. 

Main topics featured in “On Botany” will be opened to discussion during the exhibition’s two month showing with the attendance of artists and guest researchers at BLOK art space Çukurcuma. Seminar and talks schedule for the exhibition will be announced in January. “On Botany” will be open from January 21 to March 15, 2017 at BLOK art space Çukurcuma.