Botanical World Map Voyage | Two Sizes | Kristjana S Williams

The first in the new Botantical Voyagers Collection, this brand new Limited Edition artwork takes Kristjana’s trademark world map as a tableau from which to celebrate the emergence of glasshouses and botanical gardens from around the world. Beginning close to Kristjana’s own home in Brentford, London, spot the Great Pagoda that towers over Kew Gardens, the 250 year old botanical jewel of South West London. Seeds began to arrive here from the 18th century, travelling with Captain Cook on his voyage to the South Seas as well as with the crew of the ill-fated Bounty, and lovingly nurtured on board using glazed Wardian cases, depicted throughout this artwork. These special structures transformed the study of botany, and sit alongside the instruments of science used to embark on plant pathology and research into the potent health-giving power of plants. Botany blends with mycology, represented here by fairytale-like agaric mushrooms, their eye-catching hues matching those of the myriad of plants seen for the first time outside their native habitats. The record holding giant Sumatran Titan Arum sits alongside Brazil’s spider flower and Andean orchids. In this garden of the world, the elements of fact and history combine with the magical and mysterious - flying frogs leap from one plant world to another, suggestive of a child-like sense of wonder and curiosity; peculiar butterflies and flying fish illustrate the diversity found within the natural world as well as the unknown, implying that any shape, size and colour of living thing could be possible.