Plants, Gardens, and Landscapes

Entangled Garden of Plant Memory

Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art, Taiwan, 2020

Curated by Wan-Chen Cheng, dried plants and organic material provided by NTU

Spells for weather

Performed at Bundanon Art Gallery, 2023

Choreographed by Lizzie Thomson, performed by Dirt Witches and Tree Venerators, and disrupted by tempestarius Dimitri Kleioris

Photographs by Karina Pires

Spelling Seeds

Performed at Powerhouse MAAS as part of Eucalyptusdom, 2023

Choreographed by Lizzie Thomson and performed by Dirt Witches and Tree Venerators

Photographs by Anna Hay

Hear the plant song

exhibition view The Natural World, Mosman Art Gallery, 2020

tapestry 150 x 270 cm

link to the video of the piece being woven

H20 Water Bar

Paddington Water Reservoir, 2016

H2O: Water Bar is a reflective, glassy glistening installation by Janet Laurence that allows you to sample a variety of water sourced from diverse regions of Australia. Outfitted like an apothecary or laboratory, H2O: WaterBar is set amongst the heritage industrial space of the Paddington Reservoir Gardens’ inner chamber, opened to the public especially for this installation.

Australia’s identity is forever tied to our relationship with water, from the waterholes used as weapons during the colonial era, to the long droughts that affect our regional communities, and the environmental threats to the future of Australia’s ground water.

By inviting you to experience the qualities of different Australian waters, H2O: Water Bar helps us to better understand the complexity and fragility of this vital resource.

Mixed media installation

Photographs by Brett Boardman

Heartshock

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2019

Australian eucalypt, latex tubing, glass vials containing organic substances

(Forest) Theatre of Trees

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2019

Dye sublimation print on voile, aluminum extrusion, mesh, tulle, painted leaves, archival scientific images

Curated by Rachel Kent; film editing, Gary Werner; production assistant, Anna Ewald-Rice; photographs, Jacquie Manning

Elixir Lab-Museum Of Contemporary Art

Sydney, 2019

Mixed media installation

Photograph by Jacquie Manning

Inside the flower

Views of a Landscape, International Garden Exposition (IGA) Berlin, 2017

Psychotropic and medicinal plants, laboratory glass, stainless steel, polycarbonate tubing mesh, 3D prints, duraclear

Produced in collaboration with LAVA Berlin and Cityplot, assistant Leslie Ranzoni, photography by Frank Sperling

Novartis: A medicinal maze inveiling glass

Sculpture and Medicinal Garden, Novartis Campus, Sydney, 2016

Printed glass panels, medicinal plants

Photographs by Richard Mordaunt

The lives of Plants

13th Cuenca Biennale, Ecuador, 2016

Paper, acetate, duraclear prints, mesh, laboratory glass, plastic tubes, locally sourced herbs

Photographs by Alan Luckie

ELixir Bar-Inhotim Institute

Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2018

Laboratory glass, tubes, plants, liquids, elixirs, timber

Photographs by William Gomes

Anthropocene

Fine Art Society, London, 2016

Duraclears, acrylic

The Treelines Track

Arthur Boyd Estate, Bundanon, New South Wales, 2014-ongoing

Various indigenous tree species, stones

The underlying

56th October Salon, “The Pleasure of Love”, Belgrade City Museum and Cultural Centre, 2016

Herbal plants, bandages, laboratory glass, plastic tubes, Elm tree, tule vails, two-channel video, sound

Curated by David Elliot, photographs by Nikola Marinkovic

Blood and Chlorophyll

Lake Macquarie Gallery, 2014

Australian eucalypt, mirror, laboratory glass, oil glaze, video projection, bones, dried plants

Residues

Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, 2014

Australian eucalypt, latex tubing, glass vials containing organic substances

The Alchemical Garden of Desire

McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery, Langwarrin, Victoria, 2012

Fragments of plants, laboratory and hand blown glass, photographs, acrylic silicon, tubes, resin, pigments, mirror, tulle, frost cloth, video projection

Photographs by John Gollings

Tarkine (For a World in Need of Wilderness)

Macquarie Bank Collection, London, 2012

In the central area of the new large foyer of Macquarie Bank is a floating verdant wilderness, this new artwork is in stark contrast to the built up urban context of the city of London. Made up from a series of images drawn from the precious and threatened wilderness of the Tarkine region in Tasmania, Australia. Transparent and layered images hang from the ceiling with mirror panels creating a semi spiral sculptural formation. It is an experiential piece that transforms in changing light as one moves along and around it (there being no fixed viewing point). The work expresses the beauty and wonder of nature, amplified through reflection and transparency. Visible from both inside and outside through windows along Ropemaker street the work is able to have a public presence and illuminated at night the work forms a vast lantern experience. The images shift between fluid abstracted painterliness and amplified botanical details and passages of the verdant landscape.

The artwork makes visible an almost secret place. The Tarkine is an Antipodean Eden at the other end of the world from London, however their histories are so totally entwined. Identified by WWF as one of the most threatened natural environments, still ecologically in tact, it is the second most important temperate rainforest in the world under threat from mining and forestry interests. It is imperative that such a rare and special place is protected and preserved for our world in need of wilderness.

Photograph by Patrick Gorman

In your verdant view

Private commission for JPW Architects, Sydney, 2009

What can a garden be

BREENSPACE, Sydney, 2010

Acrylic, scientific glass, plastic tubes, duraclear, dried plants, seeds, specimens, tulle, wood, mirrors

Transient in Light

Private commission for literary gatherings, Melbourne, 2008

Olive trees, screen printed glass

Waiting-A medicinal garden for ailing plants

Kunsthalle Rønnebæksholm, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2017

17th Biennale of Sydney, 2010

Acrylic, scientific glass, plastic tubes, 3D prints, duraclear, dried plants, seeds, tulle, wood, mirrors

Photographs by David Stjernholm and Jamie North

Ferment

view from installation at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, 2010

Hand blown glass, plant specimens

Ghost

Lake Macquarie Gallery, 2009

Seraphic-fired screen printed glass, stainless steel

Heartshock

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2008

Australian eucalypt, latex tubing, glass vials containing organic substances

Curated by Felicity Fenner

Cellular Gardens (Where Breathing Begins)

Museum of Contemporary Art collection, Sydney, 2005

Stainless steel, acrylic, blown glass, plastic tubing, rainforest plants

Ghost Glasshouse for Lost Botanical Species

Private collection, 2003

The breath we share

Sidney Myer Commemorative Sculpture, Bendigo Art Gallery, 2003

In the Shadow

Olympic Park, Sydney, 2000

Fog, casuarina forest, bulrushes, resin, stainless steel, text, wands

Photographs by Patrick Bingham Hall

Elixir

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Japan, 2003

Wooden traditional house, screen-printed glass panels, paints, vials, plants extract, shochu, hand-blown glass

Photographs by Shigeo Anzal

The Edge of the Trees

Museum of Sydney, 1995

Both an exhibit of the museum and a public sculpture, on the site of first Government House

there is the memory of the site
the botanical memory
the Eora memory
the colonial memory
through a language of
materials
naming
mapping

Sandstone, wood, steel, oxides, shells, honey, bones, zinc, glass, sound, 29 pillars

created in collaboration with Fiona Foley, curated by Peter Emmett