Brisbane, Australia
Trained as a painter, Australian artist Rosemary Laing is today mostly known for conceptually based photography and performance. She generally produces series, where different stages of dramatization present in all her works can be studied in detail. In her photographic series, A Dozen Useless Actions for Grieving Blondes, Rosemary Laing takes issue with concerns both political and personal and makes them universal through cathartic displays of grief. The viewer, being confronted with 12 images of emotionally exposed women in various stages of sorrow, empathizes deeply with their grief, which is real but without any tangible effect.
Behind the subjects of the series appears the cinematic, streaked pink background flashing by like landscapes seen from a fast moving train. The images recall film stills and are what the artist calls “distillations of time”. What bonds these women is their pale white skin and blonde hair. For the viewer, their intense emotional expressions appear to be responses to an undefined event. In actuality, the work originated from a period in Australia when the government elected in 2007 issued a formal apology for the governments past. Upon this knowledge the tension, frustration, and instability that overwhelm these women becomes more palpable and universal.
The connection between one's place of belonging and memory, the singular female subject, and reactions within cultural and political shifts have been focuses throughout Laing's career and all have a strong presence in A Dozen Useless Actions for Grieving Blondes.
place & year of birth
Brisbane, Australia, 1959
featured galleries
Galerie Lelong, New York, USA; Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia; Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf, Germany
education
MFA, Honors Class 1, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1996
solo exhibitions
2009
“prostrate your horses: weather and then some,” The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
2008
“to walk on a sea of salt,” Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, South Australia, Australia
2007
“flight,” Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee
2005
“the unquiet landscapes of Rosemary Laing,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Traveled through 2006 to Kunshallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2004
'Rosemary Laing,' Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain
group exhibitions
2009
“Manipulating Reality: How Images Redefine the World,” Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
“Silence: A Selection of Works from the Collection,” Museum of Art Lucerne, Germany
“Remote Proximity: Nature in Contemporary Art,” Kunst Museum Bonn, Germany
“Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between Nature and Society,” Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
2008
Sydney Biennial: “Revolutions – Forms That Turn,” Sydney, Australia
2007
Venice Biennale, the 52nd International Art Exhibition: “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense,” Venice, Italy
“The Double Face of Photography: Holdings from the Permanent Collection,” Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
“The BIG Picture,” The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
2006
“Mite!,” The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama-shi, Japan
“Prism: Contemporary Art from Australia,” Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
“Shifting Terrain: Contemporary Landscape Photography,” Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
“The Genius of the Place: Land and Identity in Contemporary Art,” Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia
2005
“A Kind of Magic: The Art of Transforming,” Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
“Out There: Landscape in the New Millennium,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio
“The Forest: Politics, Poetics, and Practice,” Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
2004
“2004: Australian Culture Now,” National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
“Busan Biennale,” Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea
bibliography
the unquiet landscapes of Rosemary Laing, Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2005
Rosemary Laing, Salamanca: Domus Artium 2002, 2004
Rosemary Laing: A Survey 1995 – 2002, Sydney: Gitte Weise Gallery, 2003
awards
2001
Greene Street, New York Studio Residency, Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council
2000
Australian Research Council Grant, University of New South Wales
1999
National Photographic Purchase Award, Albury Wodonga Regional Art Foundation
Australian Research Council Grant, University of New South Wales
1998
Industry and Cultural Development Grant, Australian Film Commission
Australian Research Council Grant, University of New South Wales
1997
New Work, Visual Arts / Craft Fund, Australia Council
Faculty Research Grant, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
1996
Faculty Research Grant, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
1995
Faculty Research Grant, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
1994
Faculty Research Grant, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
1993
Fellowship recipient, Visual Arts / Crafts Board of the Australia Council
1992
Blanche Louisa Buttner Bequest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
1991
Perc Tucker Acquisition, Townsville Regional Gallery, Townsville
1990
Rothmans Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts
Artist in Residence, Canberra Institute for the Arts, Canberra, Australia
1989
Artists Development Grant, Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council
1985
Project Grant, Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council