MCA PRESENTS JANET LAURENCE’S FIRST MAJOR SURVEY

[Sydney, Friday 01 March] The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) today opened Left: Artist Janet the first major survey of one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, Janet Laurence. Laurence preparing her Janet Laurence: After Nature encompasses key works and themes from the artist’s practice, new MCA commission, Theatre of Trees, featuring sculpture, installation, photography and video. The exhibition runs until 10 June photograph: Jacquie 2019. Manning.

For over 30 years, Janet Laurence has explored the interconnection of all living things – animal, Right: Janet Laurence’s plant, mineral – through a multi-disciplinary approach. She has employed diverse materials to studio, photograph: explore the natural world in all its beauty and complexity, and to highlight the environmental Jacquie Manning. challenges it faces today. The exhibition reflects on the key themes in Laurence’s work: the fragility of the natural world, its plight and potential restoration. Curated by MCA’s Chief Curator, Rachel Kent, the exhibition includes a number of seminal works from the artist’s career, with loans from public institutions around Australia and the MCA Collection work Cellular Gardens (Where Breathing Begins). The works on display range from her alchemical works of the early 1990s that use metal plates, minerals, organic substances and lightboxes, through to her installations of the 2000s and beyond, which incorporate plant and animal specimens within transparent vitrines and ‘wunderkammer’ environments. Central to the exhibition is a major new commission for the MCA, entitled Theatre of Trees, which brings together the last decade of Laurence’s research into plants, their medicinal and healing powers, and trees. Set in MCA’s Level 1 North Gallery, this installation comprises four parts: Forest (Theatre of Trees), Knowledge (Tree of Life), Wonder (Herbarium) and Desire (Elixir Lab). MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, said, “Janet Laurence: After Nature is a captivating and imaginative response to the critical issues regarding the environment through the lens of one of Australia’s most brilliant artistic minds. Janet’s work addresses serious environmental issues facing Australia from the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef to the deforestation in Tasmania. We hope that the exhibition will provoke new ways of thinking and responding to the effects of climate change, and the impact that humankind has made on the natural world.” MCA PRESENTS JANET LAURENCE’S FIRST MAJOR SURVEY

Laurence has exhibited widely both in Australia and internationally. She has been a recipient of Left: Janet Laurence, Rockefeller, Churchill and Australia Council Fellowships, and was awarded with an Alumni Award Deep Breathing: for Arts, University of New South Wales. In 2015, she was one of the 30 artists who exhibited work Resuscitation for the Reef (still), 2015–16, n the Artists 4 Paris Climate Exhibition, exhibiting Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef – various wet specimens, which is currently on display at the MCA – at the Muséum National D’Historie Naturelle, in Paris, corals, pigment, acrylic France. bones, laboratory glass, collection of the artist, This exhibition has evolved from two decades of collaboration between Janet Laurence and MCA image courtesy and © Chief Curator Rachel Kent, who curated Laurence’s exhibition Muses at The Ian Potter Museum of the artist. Art, The University of Melbourne in 2000. Right: Janet Laurence, Janet Laurence: After Nature runs from 01 March until 10 June 2019 at the Museum of Cellular Gardens (Where Contemporary Art Australia. Breathing Begins), 2005, stainless steel, For more information, visit mca.com.au, or follow @MCA_Australia. mild steel, acrylic, blown glass, rainforest Key Public Programs plants, dimensions In conversation: Janet Laurence variable, Museum of 02 Mar, 2 – 3:15pm | General admission $20 Contemporary Art, Hear from artist Janet Laurence in conversation with MCA Chief Curator Rachel Kent. purchased 2005, image courtesy and © the Elixir Lab artist. Various dates and times | General admission $15 Ten one-off experiential performances set in a botanical laboratory tasting various liquid elixirs and learning about their medicinal values. Talking Trees Various dates and times | Free A five-part talk series bringing together artists, researchers and advocates in discussion around one of the world’s most vital elements: trees. This series is a joint collaboration between the MCA, University of Sydney, Sydney Policy Lab and artist Janet Laurence. Media images accessible on Dropbox here. For any media enquiries, please contact: Stephanie Pirrie - [email protected] - Ph 02 9245 2417 - M 0430 517 722