Garden Promenade playfully speculates with the question ‘What if Sarah Sophia Banks made the journey to Australia, instead of or alongside her brother Joseph. Sarah spent much of her time advancing Joseph’s career while she built her own priceless collection of coins medals, visiting cards, satirical prints and print ephemera. She had an “eyebrow-raising fashion sense” and was often described as a “fashion whip”. Sharon focuses on motifs of plants that her brother collected such as flannel flowers, grevilleas and banksias in lace-like textiles to draw attention to the potential of the feminine eye. Using the live collection of the Australian National Botanic Gardens over the last two years, Sharon speculates that perhaps what could have been or the hypothetical contribution to the decorative arts, and the influence of the landmark journey to Australia.

This exhibition is at the Australian National Botanical Gardens, Canberra 3 -29 October 2024