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Photo Artist Rosemary Laing Stages Cinematic Scenes in Unexpected Environments

The Australian artist currently has a major solo exhibition on at the National Art School Gallery.
'one dozen unnatural disasters in the Australian landscape #2' (2003) by Rosemary Laing, type C photograph. Courtesy Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

You’d be forgiven for assuming that Rosemary Laing’s photographs had been given the Photoshop treatment. Rather than using digital manipulation to create her cinematic images, the Sydney-based artist stages performances at specific sites or erects installations and then photographs them. In her bulletproofglass (2002) series, which is perhaps her most recognisable work, she captures bleeding brides dressed in antique wedding dresses literally fall from the sky, the Blue Mountains acting as a backdrop. In other series, manmade objects are placed in unexpected, natural environments—an upside-down house frame on a grassy knoll; carpet covering a forest floor; bright red furniture in the outback.

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While some photo-artists might care most about the final image, for Rosemary it’s as much about the process that brought her to it. “Fundamental to the work I make is being physically in a place and within a situation; working with the experience of the place and the situation as well as the uncontrollable factors that inherently arise within it,” she tells The Creators Project. “The intention of the idea pitted amidst these factors is what the work is… It’s the actions that I undertake that are of primary importance, and making an image of that action and printing it remains like some sort of aftermath, some sort of leftover, that remembers that I undertook the action.”

Rosemary currently has a major solo exhibition on at the National Art School Gallery in Sydney. The show spans more than a decade of her career, and also includes new and unseen works. The exhibition is free to the public and goes until October 1, 2015.

'brumby mound #5' (2003) by Rosemary Laing, type C photograph.Courtesy Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

'Jim' (2010) by Rosemary Laing, type C photograph. Courtesy Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

Rosemary Laing is represented by Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. For more information about the artist head here.

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