REBECCA LOUISE LAW: SEASONS

A JOURNEY THROUGH NATURE

Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park

I was very excited to be able to go and see this exhibition with an artist friend of mine, Rachel. Covid restrictions and social distancing rules were in place, this played to our advantage as it was easier to be immersed in the installation with less people.

Rebecca Louise Law had requested no photography inside her exhibition, her request made because she wanted you to be totally immersed in this sensory journey. The above image was taken by Rachel at my request, it was allowed as it was classed as the entrance to the exhibition.

What was it we were to be immersed in?

Approximately 250,000 dried flowers which were arranged and in garlands suspended from the ceiling on thin entwined copper wires.

In the image above, the entry to the exhibition, a blanket/tapestry of weaved dried flowers and twigs greeted us an intricate insight into what was to come.

We walked into a white walled room with sweeping suspended sea lavender that was lit fairly dramatically from above to cause ethereal, delicate layered shadows on the walls.

Moving through the room we met an almost Pagan arrangement in the centre, solid and draping down from the ceiling made of dense thick stemmed flowers and casting a looming shadow, surrounded by more garlands, these were Spring like made from dried daffodils that had been apparently collected from the grounds of Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park.

Because I am an ex-florist I could see the intricate workings to achieve this stunning display of hundreds of flowers. The hours of work to wire each individual stem with copper wire is painstaking and laborious the fun part would have been arranging them all in the breathtaking canopies twisting each piece to exactly the correct position.

We journeyed through each season, each merged into another the smell of mulchy Autumn, or lavender, spiky blue globes of thistles contrasting with deep pink paperlike dried peonies, floating, drooping and highlighted by twisted shiny copper wires.

Tangled branches of an interior woodland made angular shadows this time, each garland a new floral delight. The masks we were wearing made our sense of smell a little dulled but we still had an overall impression of the seasons.

I took out my notebook to write some words to remind me of the feelings and visual experience.

I wrote;

Drawn to the powerful shapes of delicate shapes of shadows

Tousled, draped, delicate, flora, Alice in Flowerland.

Gypsophila, daffodils, leaves, hops, gypsophila, woodland, mulch.

Wonderous Summer, seeds, nature.

Because I am an ex-florist I could see the intricate workings to achieve this stunning display of hundreds of daffodils, sea lavender, poppy seed heads, thistles, hydrangeas and many others. In the video below it shows her process and the hours of concentration and commitment to climb ladders and position this installation in situ. I found myself explaining to Rachel how some of the displays had been achieved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km6a-iHmU84

In the next room was a video of nature's seasons, sky, thunder, rain dripping from leaves, micro and macro images of flowers, trees, flora and fauna. From windswept fields to the fuschia pink florals of Summer, ladybirds , snails and beetles we were saturated in Nature.

Next there were more of Law’s natural weaves, like the one at the entrance, this time they included wool like fibre, bringing a feeling of being wrapped in a blanket a soft side of nature. There were some paintings, sculptures and nature diaries. Law's writing is extremely small and it was difficult to read her text. Her collages/paintings where she included her diary texts were amongst leaves, found objects and pressed flowers which had also been glued to the paper.

I liked her sketchbooks with reminders of nature pressed and preserved flowers as a reminder of her discoveries.

Law wanted you to think about your relationship and spiritual connection with nature, how positive and inclusive it is to your life especially this time of a global pandemic.

At the end of the exhibition there was a plaque with a fact;

£100 Billion per year is spent on the cultivation and transportation of flowers.

That's shocking!

Overall this outing was very needed, as it has been such a long time since I have had the opportunity to visit any exhibitions. Rebecca Louise Law immersed me in Seasons I felt inspired and exhilarated. Rachel and I discussed how we felt over lunch, both having a very strong appreciation of life, the natural world, feeling lucky to be healthy and alive.

I bought Law's book 'Life in Death' and very much look forward to reading and viewing silky pages of illustrated floral images about nature without the constraints of time, and the delay, decay and extension of the flowers material value.