Planting Dreams: Shaping Australian Gardens

Past Exhibition

Exhibition

Gardening is a passion for many Australians. It gives pleasure, sustenance and dignity to daily lives. It cuts across cultural, social and national boundaries like few other activities.

(Richard Aitken, Guest Curator)

Exhibition Information

Saturday, 03 September 2016 to Sunday, 15 January 2017

Past Exhibition

Free

plantingdreams_sag_guide.pdf

Exhibition Galleries

1 Shakespeare Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
+61 2 9273 1414

View opening hours

Gardening is a passion for many Australians. It gives pleasure, sustenance and dignity to daily lives. It cuts across cultural, social and national boundaries like few other activities.

(Richard Aitken, Guest Curator)

Hand written text states: Planting Dreams, set within a circle of watercolour shapes of leaves.

Curated by garden historian Richard Aitken, Planting Dreams: Shaping Australian Gardens explores the ideas and influences that have shaped the way we make, use and enjoy our gardens. After searching through the State Library’s collections, he has selected more than 150 rare, beautiful and at times unlikely objects - spanning over five centuries - to illustrate the rich and inspiring story of garden-making.

The exhibition also features a newly commissioned interactive work by artists Lisa Cooper and Benja Harney. Responding to exhibition themes and Library collections, they have created a monumental installation which visitors can contribute to during the exhibition.

/anatomy-plants-idea-philosophical-history-plants

/lilium-superbum-john-sims-ed-curtiss-botanical-magazine-or-flower-garden-displayed

/collection-day-0

/yates-garden-calendar

/adam-and-eve-brazil-theodor-de-bry-et-al-eds-historia-americae-sive-novi-orbis-continens-xiii

/join-army-food-front-picture-grow-your-own-vegetables

Environmental artist Lynne Adams helps celebrate Planting Dreams

A colourful plastic sculpture of flowers, hangs from the ceiling - the sign on the window below reads State Library of NSW

Visit the beautiful sculptural work of environmental artist Lynne Adams on display in the Macquarie foyer for the duration of Planting Dreams.

Lynne is known for her imaginative and beautiful artworks made from recycled materials, particularly plastic drink bottles. She is passionate about our need as a society to reduce, re-use and recycle our waste.

Brightly coloured plastic flowers are tethered together to form a sculptural mesh.

Meet the curators

A man with white hair and glasses stands close to the camera with a pool of water behind him reflects the sky.

Richard Aitken

Richard Aitken is recognised nationally and internationally for his expertise in the field of garden history. He has been long a long-time editor of Australian Garden History, the quarterly journal of the Australian Garden Historical Society, and his books include The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (2002), Gardenesque (2004), Botanical Riches (2006, Seeds of Change (2006), The Garden of Ideas (2010), and Cultivating Modernism (2013). Richard has undertaken numerous conservation plans for significant historic gardens throughout Australia. He has curated several major exhibitions for Australia's leading collecting institutions.

A woman stands in front of a bookcase of vintage volumes and smiles at the camera.

Sarah Morley

Sarah is a curator working in the Library’s Research and Discovery Branch. She works closely with our Manuscript and Rare Book collections drawing on her experience in collection acquisition, arrangement and description. In 2015 Sarah curated the Australian Inspiration exhibition, a companion to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Inspiration by Design, and is the liaison curator for Planting Dreams. Sarah also provides support and content for programs, events and the Library's social media channels. Sarah has a passion for libraries, the history of the book, and interpretations of Australia from the earliest records to the present day.