The Joburg Botanica "Smell-itorium"

Vince and I went to the Standard Bank Gallery to see an exhibit on Botanically Inspired Art in South Africa.

Along with the beautiful antique botanical watercolors and drawings ...

an iris by William Kentridge

... and works of art featuring botanical subjects by South African artists,

Painting and wire art sculpture

... there were displays of traditional crafts using plant material.

And displays on South African buildings whose architecture and design derive directly from botanical structuring. (Vince loved these!)

This was a really cool bubinga quilt made from a hardwood removed from the tropical rainforest of Gabon.

close-up of the wood veneer "cloth"

There were also historical letters and artifacts taken from botanical expedition voyages in and around South Africa. This is Captain Cook's actual signature from a letter he posted from the Cape of Good Hope in 1776!








I also learned the name of the strange Crayola flesh-colored flowering plant we saw in the Richtersveld. The Stapeliae Novae.

But the most interesting exhibit of all was what I am calling their Smell-itorium, a greenhouse-turned-scent-house. In it were displayed plants and beakers filled with the plant extract typically used for medicinal purposes.

@ the Chelsea Physick Garden

It was like a combination of the Chelsea Physik Garden in London and ...

a floral chemist explains the plant extraction process

... and an exhibit I saw smelled a few years ago at NY's Museum of Art and Design called "The Art of the Scent."

Like the NY exhibit where you could stick your nose into a dent in the wall and smell the associated perfume, ...

Vince smells some essence of ether

... in the smell-itorium, you could stick your nose in a beaker and smell the associated essence of the plant standing beside it.

Next week I am going to hear a lecture at the gallery on "The History of Medicinal Plants in South Africa" or as I am calling it, ...  "Muthi for Dummies."