The Botanical Mind Online

While museums around the world are shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibition openings will be replaced by a selection of digital initiatives providing virtual access to art and culture.

When Camden Arts Centre was forced to postpone its spring exhibition, ‘The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree’, an ambitious online project was rapidly developed in its stead. ‘The Botanical Mind Online’ considers the spiritual significance of plant life with special attention to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on humanity’s place in the natural order. Presented in chapters, including ‘Indigenous Cosmologies’, ‘Vegetal Ontology’ and ‘Sacred Geometry’, the project is transhistorical, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary, featuring ideas and artworks from writers, artists and thinkers ranging from the medieval mystic Hildegarde of Bingen to Anni and Josef Albers. The website continues to be updated with newly commissioned artworks, podcasts and texts. Visit the Botanical Mind Online here.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Seeing of Music: The Music of Gounod, from Thought Forms’(1905), Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater

Screenshot of viewing room for the Botanical Mind Online’s chapter on ‘Sacred Geometries’

Page from Liber Divinorum Operum (The Book of Divine Works) (13th century), Hildegarde von Bingen. By concession of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities – Lucca State Library