A major Australian contemporary artist, Janet Laurence devotes her work to exploring the turbulence and resilience of life in the Anthropocene. As a druidess exploring the mysteries of nature and an emergency doctor seeking to combat extinctions and collapses in today’s world, the artist manipulates plants and test tubes more than paint brushes. Her protean work (sculptures, installations, photographs, videos) takes the forms of a real experimental lab, directed, for example, at saving the coral reef.
 
At long last the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) is dedicating an exhibition – ‘Janet Laurence: After Nature’ – that reflects her worth: The highlight of this exhibition, which runs until 10 June and is curated by Rachel Kent, is ‘Theatre of Trees’, the fruit of her extensive research on the therapeutic virtues of trees. Her use of organic and unusual materials gives this commission a ‘chamber of wonder’ feel.

“Janet Laurence : After Nature”, from 1 March to 10 June 2019, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Alice Audouin and Lisa Toubas 

March 2019

Crédit: Janet Laurence, “Cellular Gardens (Where Breathing Begins)” (detail), 2005, courtesy of the artist

Find all the articles from Impact Art News n°7 – March 2019

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