• Back to What’s On

Flora Notata: A Meditation on Plants, People, and Place

Angela Anderson

Opening Event :
Friday 7 March 2025, 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Exhibition Dates :
Friday 7 – Monday 31 March 2025
Monday – Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday 8,15 & 29 March 2025 10:30am – 2:30pm
**CLOSED on Sat 22 March 2025**
Sundays & Public Holidays CLOSED

Flora Notata by Angela Anderson, explores the relationship between people and plants in the urban environment via an immersive exhibition of Cyanotype prints, video projections, and sculptural installations.

“Flora Notata (Latin: ‘noted plants) is a meditation on plants and place; of getting to know the natural environments we live in, and ourselves, better.

Although I greatly enjoy the natural world around me, I realised that I barely noticed specific plants, or knew the names, origins, or habits, of many of those that I encounter daily. I decided to pay more attention in the places I spent time in to come to know that which I walked among.

I duly photographed and identified the foliage I noticed with an App. I came across flora endemic to the areas I was in and observed introduced plants, trees and weeds everywhere. I learned their names – in Latin – their origins, distribution, and growing habits. This was useful information at the time (much of it hasn’t stuck in my memory), but it lacked the feeling of wonder and majesty that the plants imparted: of the many and varied designs, the shadows of their unique forms, the way they moved and sounded in the breeze. 

Through the lens of the Cyanotype process – a 180-year-old camera-less photographic technique that produces images in shades of blue – the shadow selves of the plants revealed themselves. In making the prints many plant specimens resisted laying flat and I didn’t force them. This sense of movement seems fitting to the dynamic nature of plants in the environment – growing, blooming, blighted, fading, and decaying in continuous cycles, basking in the sun, hiding in or casting shade, bending to the breeze and the weather. Additionally, I video captured plants in motion and toned the resulting vignettes Cyanotype-blue to capture the sensory experience of the living world.

Curious about the experiences of others, I invited others to gather plants from their gardens for me to make prints of. The selections they made revealed individual values and aesthetics influenced by family background and social, cultural, and environmental conditions. They are both personal maps and  collective stories of place.

This small survey of plants serves as a reminder of the beauty and knowledge that grows when we pay attention. I invite you to explore your own everyday environment to see what you discover out there and also within yourself.”
– Angela Anderson