More on Janet Laurence… Laurence is contemporary Australian artist who works across a range of media and genres (expressive forms.) Laurence is probably best known for her site- specific installations. These are frequently involved with ecological themes or issues. The title of this work, Waiting: a medicinal garden for ailing plants, indicates for us that the artist has sought to create a place of healing. Once again, her installations perform a double role: artwork, and rehabilitation space. Janet Laurence, Waiting: a medicinal garden for ailing plants, site-specific installation in Sydney Botanic Gardens for Biennale of Sydney 2010

Various Australian native plants were selected, and housed within this white structure. The separation into different sections is somewhat reminiscent of a museum display, or even like wards in a hospital. (The title phrase ‘ailing plants’ gives us a clue about the concerns of the work. ) There is a ‘maternity / fertility’ section which houses various seeds; an ‘intensive care unit’ for plants that are seriously ill; and a mortuary section which houses dead plants. All the living plants are connected by tubes, and water is pumped through to them using a solar- powered pump. They are mostly in glass vials or containers of some sort. The room is filled with light.

Waiting: a medicinal garden for ailing plants, details. In the course of creating this work, Laurence consulted with plant experts from the Botanic Gardens. The plants that she uses that are sick could have been be a risk to healthy plants both in the structure and in the Botanic Garden. Because of this, they had to be covered in a semi-transparent, veiling material. This obviously introduces another formal aspect to the work. Fortunately, this worked in well with Laurence’s ideas. We have seen this veiling before….

Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Trees, Reihen Switzerland Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work Wrapped Trees, Reihen Switzerland involved the wrapping of trees with a semi-transparent material. Of that project, they said: “The branches of the Wrapped Trees pushed the translucent fabric outward and created dynamic volumes of light and shadow and moving in the wind with new forms and surfaces shaped by the ropes on the fabric.” ( It seems they were primarily concerned with the formal aspects of the work, and simply creating beauty. Laurence’s work is beautiful and carefully composed as well, but the context of this veiling (that is, how it’s presented; the environment, the other compositional strategies) changes the meaning. Aspects such as the scale, and the fact of it being one small structure inside another, rather than outside in the landscape also affects how meaning is conveyed. Also Laurence’s structure looks like a highly controlled environment.

Laurence also often uses glass in her work. We saw this in In the shadow; Edge of the Trees; Veil of trees, as well as Waiting: a medicinal garden for ailing plants. Glass is clear. It’s usually deliberately placed in front of an artwork or valuable display. It’s designed as a barrier to protect something precious. Or it’s used as a window, a portal between inside and outside. Either way, it’s designed with the viewer in mind. A viewer is imagined. However it’s not as simple as that: glass can also reflect. There can be a sense of confusion of imagery…is what I’m seeing actually inside, or a reflection of what is behind me? Laurence has played with this confusion in her works. It is a postmodern idea, this deliberate confusion of where the art is vs. where the world is. It is a challenge to the idea of the art object. She also likes to blur the boundary between nature and man-made structure. Veil of trees,, 1999, installation in the Domain, Sydney. Use of seeds and ash embedded in glass panels, amongst the growing trees. The panels are etched with poetry and writings about trees by Australian authors. Janet Laurence & Fiona Foley, Edge of the Trees, 1995, detail showing glass panel embedded in steel frame. >>>>

Laurence has said of her own work that it ‘echoes architecture.’ Waiting: a medicinal garden is an artwork not only to look at, but to experience physically. You walk through this structure. This means that you are experiencing the artwork over time. This compositional strategy has of course been used deliberately. We see this also in Edge of the Trees (pictured) and In the shadow. What effect can it have on us, as an audience, to experience something over time, and with our bodies rather than simply through our vision as we stand in front of it?

Adriaen van Utrecht, (Belgium, c c. 1652) Still-Life with a Bouquet and a Skull, 1642 Laurence often uses actual plants or plant materials (seeds, etc.) – what meaning can be conveyed by the use of plants or animals in an artwork? In the shadow, 2000, installation in Homebush Bay creek, detail.

Waiting: a medicinal garden for ailing plants, 2010 ‘mortuary’ detail. Laurence’s work has been called ‘Environmental Art’ for obvious reasons. It is also like Land Art from the middle 20 th century (Walter de Maria; Robert Smithson.) It has obvious connections with Christo & Jeanne-Claude. Like Conceptual Art we’ve seen from earlier periods, Laurence’s work often involves series; text; repetition; classification; lists; grouping; naming. There is an imposition of logic and ideas upon the elements of her work. With Sol LeWitt’s instructions for his Wall Drawings there was the emphasis on the idea behind the art which challenged audiences to consider precisely what the art object was; Joseph Kosuth’s work Titled: Art as idea as idea (1966) used text to question how a symbol of a thing could come to represent a thing. Joseph Kosuth (U.S. b. 1945), Titled. Art as idea as idea (water), Photocopy, mounted on board, x cm

Sense of place It has been said that Laurence’s work enhances a sense of place. Much of her work interacts with architecture in some way, or is in fact architectural itself. Often she been commissioned to create a work which is site-specific to some building or cultivated space. There is often an emphasis on the Natural world around us. What do we think ‘sense of place’ could mean with regard to Laurence’s work? Janet Laurence, Translucidus, installation at QANTAS lounge, Sydney Airport, 2002 This work uses glass and transparent images of cloudscapes are printed onto the glass, along with text which are descriptions of various types of clouds. The word ‘translucidus’ is a type of transparent cloud where you can still see the sun, or moon, through it.

HSC Questions….. Plate 1: Clarice Beckett, 1887– 1935, Australia, Bathers, Beaumaris, c. 1925–1930 oil on canvas on board 39.2 × 29.5 cm. <<< Plate 2: Clarice Beckett, 1887–1935, Australia, painting on reverse side of Bathers, Beaumaris, oil on board, 39.2 × 29.5 cm. Q: Explore how place stimulates Clarice Beckett’s practice in Plates 1 and 2. (Question 1 out of 3. Suggestion of 9 minutes; worth 5 marks out of 25.)

Resources John McDonald Essay: Janet Laurence’s beautiful website: Article from Habitus Magazine: