"… it looks as if a flood of newsprint has inundated the bush, as if the river runs media instead of water and the daily noise of commerce has deposited itself over nature like a fibrous silt that is destined to rot." - Robert Nelson, The Age 30 April 2014
A forest is carpeted with truckloads of newspapers. A cacophony of printed voices layers the soil horizon of the ground. The former surface litter of loose and partly decayed organic matter is overlaid with pulped tree product. The 21st century cultural carpet of current events and mercenary babble is already time-lined by weathering, which is fast-tracking the decomposition of the worded pages. The graphic of newsprint is breaking down like typographic stew, falling apart like old lacework, dissolving like paint – it’s losing its imprint as fallen branches and leaves scatter over it. It seems to expect that over time it will disappear beneath what comes after, what fresh coats some future century will lay over it.
Rosemary Laing’s projects are most often created in culturally resonant locations, where her interventions are in-situ and performative. The Paper was created on location at Bundanon between May and July 2013. During the making of the work Bundanon experienced its worst flooding in decades. Bundanon is grateful to the artist for the gift of work from The Paper and to Geoff Ainsworth for the loan of two works from his personal collection.
Laing has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense; Domus Artium, Salamanca; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville and the National Museum of Art, Osaka. She has participated in several international biennials, including the Biennale of Sydney (2008), Venice Biennale (2007), Busan Biennale (2004) and Istanbul Biennial (1995). Rosemary Laing is represented by Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne and Galerie Lelong in New York.
