Janet Laurence – After Nature
We all know what it’s like to have a headache, indigestion or to just generally feel lacklustre. So you’ll be interested to know there are free, natural remedies right on your doorstep: in nature.
You can learn all about the health and medicinal properties of our plants at the Elixir Lab at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is also offering interactive tasting sessions.
It might sound like a pop-up by a pharmaceutical or naturopathy company, but it’s anything but. Elixir Lab is just one element of the sensory experience that is Janet Laurence: After Nature, the first major Australian survey of the cherished Sydney artist’s large body of work.
Wander through Laurence’s exhibition and you’ll be taken from the forests of Brazil to the Tasmanian bush, past a seed bank of endangered Australian rainforest species and on to the Great Barrier Reef.
Curated by MCA’s chief curator Rachel Kent, After Nature includes various existing works from Laurence’s 30-year practice and a large-scale commission, Theatre of Trees, where an entire room has been divided into various self-contained installations titled Wonder, a herbarium containing 19th-century botanical models, specimens and liquids; Knowledge, a beautifully constructed wooden reading room; and Desire, the lab.
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