Janet Laurence’s immersive and transformative artworks evoke a deep curiosity and empathy for the natural world. With alchemical resonances, her paintings, installations and sculptures are tactile, amorphous, and fluid. Her work is underpinned by a philosophical understanding of elemental forces connecting all living things. She uses a range of organic and artificial materials to create visceral zones of contemplation, compelling audiences to reflect on the power and fragility of the natural world.
Janet Laurence
born 1947, Australia
Untitled (1) from the Pacific iosis series 1990
gold, silver and metallic pigments, black ink, shellac, adhesive metallic printed dots; dried grass; Japanese paper support 96.5 x 64.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2001 (D 2001/0861)
© Janet Laurence. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery
Born in Sydney in 1947, Laurence travelled and studied in Europe and America in the 1970s and 80s. In Italy she encountered the work of the Arte Povera artists, and while undertaking graduate studies in New York from 1979-81 was also influenced by the Earth Art Movement. On her return to Australia she continued her studies at the City Art Institute, Sydney (now UNSW Art & Design) and associated with other artists who shared her multi-disciplinary approach and environmental concerns. In the late 1980s Laurence became interested in the concept of alchemy and began using metal oxides and natural materials in her work. Alchemy is characterised by transmutation, the changing of one form to another, using base materials like mercury to convert into gold. This medieval form of proto chemistry was concerned with the mystical ideals of creating an elixir of life.
Laurence draws on these material and philosophical practices in Untitled (1) from her Pacific iosis series of 1990. Iosis is a Greek word signifying the last, successful stage of transmutation, which is also associated with turning red. In this series, Laurence uses non-traditional materials, including gold, silver and metallic pigments, ink, and dried grass applied in an organic and haptic way. The intersection of these elements creates a tactile surface of opaque and translucent liquids, fermenting the surface. Laurence states:
I was looking at this dialogue [between material and matter] and thinking about different ways of ordering: such as the Periodic table, and the role of science. But I was doing this as a female artist and did not want to follow an academic line; I liked the idea of a more poetic side to it, which was the alchemical side as it were – a sidestep. It was a feminist idea of not wanting to fit into this mould and to work around it. I still think alchemy is amazingly poetic. [i]
Laurence has exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, her works included in major exhibitions including the 9th Biennale of Sydney (1992), 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010) and the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008. In 2019 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney presented the major survey show Janet Laurence: After Nature. She has undertaken major commissions including Four pillars 1992 with Peter Tonkin for The Hall of Memory at the Australia War Memorial, and in 1995 collaborated with artist Fiona Foley on a major installation Edge of the trees for the forecourt of the Sydney Museum. Laurence has received the John Glover Art Prize, Tasmania (2013) for landscape painting, a Churchill Fellowship (2006) and the McGeorge Fellowship, University of Melbourne (2000). Her work is held in all major public collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and internationally in New Zealand, Germany and Japan.
Laurence has a long association with UNSW. In 1981 Laurence undertook post-graduate studies at the City Art Institute, Sydney (now UNSW Art & Design) and completed a Master of Fine Art, College of Fine Arts (now known as UNSW Art & Design) in 1993. She has been a been a visiting Fellow at UNSW Art & Design since 2008, receiving the UNSW Alumni Award for the Arts in 2010.
[i] Janet Laurence in Rachel Kent, ‘After Nature: Janet Laurence’
, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2019, accessed 19 September 2019.FEATURED WORKS FROM THE UNSW ART COLLECTION
Untitled (2) from the Pacific iosis series 1990
gold, silver and metallic pigments, black ink, shellac, adhesive metallic printed dots; dried grass; Japanese paper support 96.5 x 64.0 cm
UNSW Art Collection
Gift of the artist, 2001 (D 2001/0862)
© Janet Laurence. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery