Life in Death – Rebecca Louise Law

The Life in Death installation at Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens offers an “alternative concept of beauty” through the evolving nature of its medium. Best known for her international floral installations, Rebecca Louise Law‘s most intricate large-scale artwork to date is exhibited at Kew from the 7th of October 2017 until the 11th of March 2018.  The installation set forth that there is indeed life in preservation as there is beauty in decay.

Rebecca Louise Law is a British installation artist, best known for artworks created with natural materials, namely flora. ‘I Have Always Been in Awe of Nature’: Artist Rebecca Louise Law on the Preciousness and Power of Flowers.

Defying all expectations of what an art exhibition can be, installation artist Rebecca Louise Law has forged a dynamic, multi-sensory practice entirely her own. Law’s medium of choice is flowers, which she employs in seemingly endless formats. Each of her installations is a test to see how far she can push her nontraditional, yet quotidian, medium to create all-encompassing experiences for viewers.

Law embraces her work’s entropy, as it moves through multiple states of life and decay over the course of an exhibition. A longtime advocate for the value of nature and its utmost importance, Law intends for her viewers to slow down and take in their surroundings—and she hopes her audience will do so long after leaving her exhibitions.

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Firewall – Aaron Sherwood and Mike Alison

Somewhere near the intersection of music, motion, and metaphysics is where you’ll find “Firewall” — an interactive media installation from Aaron Sherwood and Mike Alison. At first glance, the piece may look somewhat underwhelming, consisting of nothing more than a spandex sheet stretched across a large frame. Once pressed, however, this membrane suddenly comes to life with fiery visual patterns and music that shift according to the depth and pressure of a person’s touch.

The depth of the membrane is measured with a Microsoft Kinect, while music is generated using an alogrithm created from Max/MSP software. The volume and speed of this music changes with the force of an applied pressure, allowing for what Sherwood calls “a very expressive musical playing experience.”

The New York-based Sherwood says he was inspired to create “Firewall” as part of a forthcoming performance called “Mizalu,” scheduled to premiere in June 2013. Within the context of the performance, “Firewall” will serve as something of a metaphysical barrier, separating the audience from the performers, and by extension, life from death.

“During one scene in the performance dancers will press into the spandex with the audience facing the opposite side,” Sherwood explains on his blog. “Mizalu is about death and experience of reality, so this membrane represents a plane that you can experience but never get through. As hard as you try to understand what’s in between life and death, you can never fully know.”

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The Reclamation – AJ Hawkins

The Reclamation is an art series exploring the decomposition of human bodies and the nutrient cycle. Each piece represents a phase of decomposition, from death to dust, and ways nature reclaims our bodies to foster life. For most, this topic is unsettling and uncomfortable.  I use science to shed light on the importance and complexity of decomposition, and a creative lens to help beautify the subject and engage viewers who might otherwise look away. By highlighting how life is facilitated by death, I’m hoping we can learn that what we see as an end is actually teeming with potential.

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AJ Hawkins is an American painter, sculptor and custom fabricator. Her works explore the challenges of living in a mortal body, in which uses fine art as her research medium to portrays this dark theme. I was particularly drawn to her art series, The Reclamation, which explores the nutrient cycle and decomposition of human bodies. She executes this series by beautifying this disturbing topic, for viewers to open their eyes to it and realize the potential of nature reclaiming itself as the human bodies fosters new life. She details the complexity and importance of this cycle and does this in a sensitive and poetic manner which I really admire. This makes me wonder how I can challenge viewers on the spaces and/or art I create in my practice with the grace that Hawkins executes with.

carmody groarke lighting

van gogh alive

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