Profile: Rosemary Laing

Rosemary Laing 1959 –

• Born in Brisbane, but has lived in Sydney for several decades
• Her works are displayed nationally in Australia and are in several museums around the world including Madrid in Spain, the USA, Japan, and Switzerland.
• Recent sales: Works have sold in recent years in the tens of thousands.

Described as a photo-based artist, Rosemary Laing creates thought-provoking pieces in a contemporary style. Many of her works are photographed landscapes that are more than just a scenic view beautifully captured, they are questioning the viewer’s perception. ‘Laing’s photographs, which she has been making and exhibiting since the 1980s, are, in fact, not at all straightforward. Each is painstakingly arranged for the camera: in her hands, photography becomes not a copying of reality – if it ever was – but a series of questions about how one sees, and particularly how one sees with a camera.’2

‘brumby mound #6’ shown above is a good example of Laing’s work. It is part of a series of photographs that at first appear just to be thoughtfully set landscapes, but on closer inspection, contain incongruous objects, designed to make the view think more deeply about what is going on more broadly in a political, environmental, and social sense. The deep red shapes in the spinifex grass are not termite mounds or rocks as the view might expect but are shaped as modern pieces of furniture.

1. tolarnogalleries.com/artists/rosemary-laing/
2. mca.com.au/artists-works/artists/rosemary-laing/