It was a delight to write fo the National Gallery of Victoria publication Golden Shells and Elegant Games of Japan.
This publication documents the exhibition Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer, held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2021. The exhibition features two large lacquer Kai-oke (shell boxes) containing the only known complete kai-awase set of 720 decorated shells, separated into 360 pairs. Each pair is depicted an Australian or Japanese flower using lacquer painting. The artwork was commissioned by Pauline Gandel AC. (National Gallery of Victoria, 2021) Seeds for survival; how botanical art nurtures nature explores the relationship between art and ecological conservation through the lens of the Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer exhibition. The chapter details a collection of Australian wildflowers depicted within the collection including boronias, hibiscus and wattles, exploring the symbolism of flowers depicted on a collection of the shells, as displayed in both Japanese and Australian culture. This act works to diminish the dualist divide between nature and culture to counter plant blindness (Wandersee and Schussler, 1999); said to be our inability to see plants that we don’t already know.
