Garden

Overview

You might have one that needs a bit more attention than you have time to give. Or maybe a flowerpot on your apartment balcony could be the best you can muster. Either way, there’s something about gardens that continues to appeal, and not just to those with green thumbs.

For decades, centuries and even longer, people have found making order out of nature soothing, whether trying to tame a patch of land or nurture a plant to grow. As have artists in committing images of gardens onto canvas.

QUT Art Museum’s latest exhibition tracks this tendancy from the 16th century onwards, while trying to understand the allure of enforcing humanity’s will over nature. The result is a collection of new and old work that ties cultivating greenery to the meaning of life — and perhaps proves that looking at a picture of a garden is as therapeutic as walking around one.