Watch this magnificent behind-the-scenes film documenting Janet Laurence’s permanent site-specific installation CLIFF, installed at The School of Design and the Built Environment Building, at Curtin University, Perth.
“Imagine you are climbing a cliff, as you ascend the viewing staircase. CLIFF brings you the earth, not as a representation but as presentation of Earth itself, in the form of rocks each with its own story - of time, weather, movement, and formation." - Janet Laurence
This project was commissioned by Curtin University and completed with support from Event Engineering and Apparatus. The recently completed The School of Design building was designed by John Wardle Architects.
Janet Laurence's Tears of Dust at Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh)
Janet Laurence's immersive installation Tears of Dust at the Museum of Australian Photography creates encounters with our changing planet. Her intensely seductive and haunting work evoke breathing forests, extreme weather events and dying glaciers. When encountering these otherworldly environments we become profoundly aware of the interconnection of all life forms and the alchemical regeneration of plants.
Janet’s installation is on display until 26 May 2024. For more information, click here.
JANET LAURENCE - Tears of Dust
NEW PUBLICATION
Artist Janet Laurence created this captivating volume that encapsulates the many strands of her creative process and advocacy for the natural world that inform her exhibition 'Tears of dust', curated by MAPh Director Anouska Phizacklea.
Designed by Pidgeon Ward, this publication distills the essence of Laurence's practice into an artefact that marks not only this exhibition, but many years of inquiry, research and care. You can hear Laurence speak at the PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit this Friday, where she'll be addressing 'Photography as activism' in 'The Alchemical Life: new ways of living on our fragile planet'.
'Tears of dust' is available in the MAPh shop via the link in our bio, where you can also find a link to purchase tickets for the Ideas Summit.
JANET LAURENCE x PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit
ANET LAURENCE x PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit
Janet Laurence is speaking in Melbourne at the PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit. Her session is titled, 'Photography as Activism'.
Get tickets for this world first global forum, explore the future of photography.
Tickets are on sale now. Head to the offical PHOTO 2024 website for more details.
15 March
The Edge, Fed Square
Other speakers include:
Ryan McGinley (US)
Sunil Gupta (CA/UK)
Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis (Pitta Pitta)
Carmen Winant (US)
Boris Eldagsen (DE)
Sophia (SA)
Serwah Attafuah (AU, Ashanti/Akan)
Michael Najjar (DE)
Mark Andrejevic (AU)
Jo Duck (AU)
filip custic (ES/HR)
Kirsten Lyttle (Māori)
Janet Laurence (AU)
Isadora Romero (EC)
Daniel Jack Lyons (US)
Katrina Sluis (AU/UK)
Lauren Dunn (AU)
Dr Kirsten Garner Lyttle (Māori)
JULIE RRAP & JANET LAURENCE Feature in Artists' Artists Podcast
JULIE RRAP & JANET LAURENCE were interviewed by Jennifer Higgie for the National Gallery of Australia's podcast 'Artists’ Artists', a five-part series connecting audiences with works of art from the national collection through the lens of contemporary artists.
The podcast invites audiences to learn more about some of the treasures and lesser-known works in the national collection, as well as gain insight into the personal life experiences and stories of Australian and international artists.
Episode 1: Julie Rrap
Julie Rrap is an Australian artist who was born in 1950 and lives in Warrang/Sydney. She has 15 works in the national collection, including multiple works from her monumental Persona and shadow series 1984. In this episode, she speaks about works of art by Sol Wiener, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Moffatt and Yukultji Napangati.
Episode 4: Janet Laurence
Janet Laurence is an Australian artist who was born in 1947 and lives in Warrang/Sydney. In 2020-21, her work was included in National Gallery exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now: Part One. Laurence has nine works in the national collection, including the large-scale installation Requiem 2020. In this episode, she speaks about works of art by Eva Hesse, Robert Smithson, Rosalie Gascoigne and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.
MURRAY FREDERICKS AND JANET LAURENCE at Sydney Contemporary
ARC ONE Gallery has brought together two giants of contemporary Australian art. A strong visual heartbeat runs through the new work of MURRAY FREDERICKS and JANET LAURENCE, who are presenting the extremities of fire and ice at Sydney Contemporary.
Murray Fredericks’ much-anticipated series BLAZE is debuting in Australia at the fair. Using non-destructive methods, Fredericks creates phantastic images of fire and flood by conjuring dramatic fires within vast deluged river systems. Janet Laurence presents an extraordinary new body of work addressing her passionate concern for the plight of Antarctica. Both artists have the capacity to arrest audiences in their tracks and this display asks us to sit with some of the most important questions facing our planet this century.
Fredericks’ BLAZE series has bewitched audiences across the world. Undeniably intense, there is a biblical quality to Fredericks’ images. The making of BLAZE was documented in a behind-the scenes film that accompanies the display at Sydney Contemporary, giving audiences a glimpse into the epic lengths Fredericks goes to capture the perfect image.
Janet Laurence’s breath-taking series Once Were Forests creates visceral waves of intense feeling. They address Laurence’s research into ice climates; as she says, “All these glacial experiences live with me”. She has visited places such as Antarctica and Iceland, and a great gravitas lays at the very centre of these beautiful, layered works. We see our own sense of urgency reflected in her compositions. There are few who can resist the enfolding testimony that Laurence offers. We are compelled not to look away.
JANET LAURENCE wins Falling Walls Science Summit Award
Janet Laurence has been awarded one of the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year for 2023.
Having recently been to the Antarctic and working with scientists there, I feel the need to make this extraordinary and fragile place comprehensible through art. Antarctica's unraveling, through catastrophic climate change, needs to be demystified and brought to a broad audience. Antarctica's future will determine our ways of being on the planet."
Laurence will be in Berlin later this year to attend the Falling Walls Science Summit, discussing the hidden complexities of Antarctic exploration and the need for fostering empathy alongside environmental consciousness.
JANET LAURENCE Interviewed by Daniel Browning on The Art Show
JANET LAURENCE was interviewed by Daniel Browning on @abcradionational The Art Show this morning.
Click the link in our bio to hear Janet speak about her latest exhibition at ARC ONE, based on life-changing trips to Antarctica and Iceland, where she came face to face with melting glaciers.
'Once Were Forests' continues at ARC ONE until this Saturday 15 April.
JANET LAURENCE on display at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf
JANET LAURENCE's 'Breathing forest' (2022) is featured in 'Arboreal Narratives 2023: In Conversation' at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.
This exhibition recognises the importance of trees and ecosystems to societal health.
'Arboreal Narratives 2023: In Conversation' continues until 30 April.
Janet Laurence, 'Breathing forest', 2022, 10 silk voile dye sublimation prints and video projection, 900 x 3000 cm (overall).
JANET LAURENCE Artist Talk 'Artists on the Ice: Interpreting the Poetics of Antartica'
ARTISTS' TALK
Across an evening of storytelling, performance and conversation, JANET LAURENCE will join a panel of four exceptional artists who have documented the power and beauty of Antarctica.
Moderated by the wonderful JULIE RRAP, in her role as Director of Sydney College of the Arts, this talk at the University of Sydney is not to be missed! Other panellists include Alice Giles AM, Professor Jean McNeil, and Dr Diana Chester.
Thursday, 20 April 2023, 6PM. This is a free event, but registration is essential, and seats are going fast! Register on the @sydney_uni website.
JANET LAURENCE presenting at 'Transhemispheric Dialogues' conference
JANET LAURENCE is presenting at the conference 'Transhemispheric Dialogues' at Loughborough University this Friday 17 March.
The conference brings together scholars, artists, curators and activists across four ‘long-clock’ roundtables, to explore the transformative potential of planetary feminisms for decolonial, ecological thinking and creative praxis in many and more-than-human worlds.
Janet will speak alongside Michelle Antoinette (Monash University), Deborah Hart (National Gallery of Australia), Anna Arabindan (Princeton University), Lisa Reihana (visual artist, Aotearoa, New Zealand), and Lize van Robbroeck (University of Stellenbosch).
You can watch the panel online via https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias/events/2023/march/planetaryfeminisms/
JANET LAURENCE launches Karina Dias Pires’s new book ‘Artists at Home’.
JANET LAURENCE will be launching Karina Dias Pires’s new book ‘Artists at Home’ tonight!
This fascinating publication features interviews and images with insights into the studio practice of 32 Australian women artists. Speaking on the impact of ‘home’ in her art making, Laurence will be in conversation with Dias Pires, alongside Camie Lyons and Louise Olsen.
Thursday, 1 December, 5—7PM
Olsen Gallery, Sydney.
JANET LAURENCE to deliver Gilbert Fellowship Lecture
Janet Laurence in her studio. Photo: Jacquie Manning.
This afternoon at 4pm, hear JANET LAURENCE deliver the Gilbert Fellowship Lecture at the Sydney College of the Arts.
Janet Laurence’s work echoes architecture while retaining organic qualities and a sense of instability and transience. Her work occupies the liminal zones or meeting places of art, science, imagination and memory. Profoundly aware of the interconnection of all life forms, Laurence often produces work in response to specific sites or environments using a diverse range of materials. Alchemical transformation, history and perception are underlying themes in her exhibition work. Hear the Gilbert Fellow speak to her practice and illustrious career.
JANET LAURENCE in Conversation at MGA
JANET LAURENCE joined MGA Director Anouska Phizacklea, along with other Bowness Photography Prize finalists Kiron Robinson, and Amos Gebhardt to discuss their diverse practices.
Exhibition continues until November 13.
Opening of the BOWNESS PRIZE Exhibition
JANET LAURENCE, HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, CYRUS TANG and LYDIA WEGNER feature in this years Bowness Prize exhibition.
Over the last 17 years, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize has emerged as an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country.
Available to view at The Monash Gallery of Art until November 13.
Installation images courtesy of Monash Gallery of Art, photographed by Andrew Curtis.
JANET LAURENCE interviewed by Radio Adelaide
JANET LAURENCE features in a fantastic interview with Radio Adelaide about her time at Casey Research Station as the 2021 Antarctic Arts Fellow.
Explaining the process of creating her new series "Ice has a memory and the colour is blue" Laurence remarks,
“I had a studio in the science building, and one of the glaciologists came in which a huge chunk of ice for me to make artwork with. I suddenly went oh god I can actually use Antarctic glacial ice to make works. So, I made a series about ice melting which I thought was a fantastic metaphor about climate change.”
JANET LAURENCE, Ice has a memory, and the memory is blue, from the ‘Ice has a memory, and the memory is blue’ series, Antartica, 2022, Chromogenic print, Edition of 3 + 1 A/P, 120 x 180 cm.
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 2022
Welcome to ARC ONE at SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY
From today will be showing a selection of major artworks from some of Australia's most significant contemporary practitioners, including PAT BRASSINGTON, LYNDELL BROWN / CHARLES GREEN, PETER DAVERINGTON, MURRAY FREDERICKS, JANET LAURENCE, HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, DANI MARTI, JULIE RRAP, IMANTS TILLERS, GUAN WEI, CATHERINE WOO, and JOHN YOUNG. We are also proud to be presenting, for the first time, the work of internationally acclaimed artist DESMOND LAZARO.
Our booth is showcasing brand new artworks, alongside some of the most iconic works from ARC ONE Gallery, in celebration of these artists and their significant contribution to contemporary art in this country.
JANET LAURENCE features in the exhibition 'Earth Canvas' at The National Museum of Australia
JANET LAURENCE features in the new exhibition 'Earth Canvas' at The National Museum of Australia with her work 'Notes from the land: Biodiversity'.
"Earth Canvas showcases works by leading contemporary artists, developed in response to regenerative farming on properties situated between the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers in southern New South Wales.
The exhibition explores the creative experiences of regenerative farmers and the artists who spent time with them, their engagement with the land and their vision for a healthier world."
Janet Laurence, Notes from the land: Biodiversity, 2020, images printed on transparency floating about a mirror surface within an acrylic box.
Congratulations to ARC ONE Bowness Photography Prize Finalists!
CONGRATULATIONS are in order!
Janet Laurence, Cyrus Tang, Lydia Wegner, Honey Long and Prue Stent have all been shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Bowness Photography Prize.
The Bowness exhibition opens 29 September. However, if you can't wait that long, please visit ARC ONE where these fantastic artists are currently on display in our Viewing Room.
JANET LAURENCE at Gippsland Art Gallery
Janet Laurence, Zylum Flow, 2022, C-Type Photograph, aluminum, 100 x 156 cm.
JANET LAURENCE features in Gippsland Art Galleries latest exhibition Fragile Earth: Extinction with her work 'Zylum Flow'.
Curated by Louisa Waters and Melanie Caple the exhibition draws together the work of 60 artists as part of a new series of biennial exhibitions that will each explore different aspects of our changing climate and its effects on life on earth.
Open until August 28.