Mrs Darwin's Garden - Carole Wilson
Saturday, November 20, 2010 -
Sunday, February 06, 2011,
-
Admission: Free
This body of work examines themes of European exploration,
mapping of new lands, and gardening traditions. It also refers to
aspects of place and the predicament of displacement. Ongoing
themes of domesticity and home making are also revisited.
The work is also concerned with the afterword; after the hype
and celebration of Darwin's anniversary, to present another
celebration, one in which women's endeavours are highlighted. A
reflection on the traditional ways in which women, often displaced
in new homes, new cities, and new countries, map the minutiae, to
order their day to day world.
There are parallels between Darwin's travels and studies of
species, to my personal journey from Ballarat, in regional
Victoria, with its historic buildings and ordered traditional
gardens, to the Northern Territory, and the seemingly alien
fecundity of the tropical vegetation. Darwinism reflects the
European preoccupations of collecting and classifying, which is as
much about adding to bodies of knowledge as it is about taming and
ordering the unknown. In my personal journey from the familiar to
the unknown my need to identify what represents for me, new species
of flora and fauna, is also a way to find my bearings, to chart and
map my new surroundings.