life in death
Exhibited: 7th October 2017 - 11th March 2018
Location: Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
‘Life in Death’ is directly inspired by the artists visits to the Economic Botany Collection at Kew, which holds samples of historic artifacts and everyday objects made from a huge variety of plant specimens. The collection includes Ancient Egyptian funerary garlands dating from 1700BC which formed Law’s primary inspiration for the piece. The garlands were exhibited alongside the installation which contained 375,000 individual elements.
A book that accompanies the exhibition was published by Kew Publishing and is available here: https://www.museumbookstore.com/products/rebecca-louise-law-life-in-death
“The beautiful diversity of flower form, colour and texture is the medium with which Law artfully creates her sculptures and installations. She presents the viewer with a new lens through which to consider the quandaries that continue to intrigue the world’s greatest plant scientists”
— Richard Barley. Director of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
“The floral wreaths from Egyptian tombs which are in the collections at Kew are as old as the pyramids, and older than the Colosseum. They have outlasted all the petulances of Emperors and complexities of religions. It is very exciting that Kew has given Law an iconic gallery space in which to explore, unfettered, this theme of ephemerality. She is an artist doing what no one else is doing”
— Christopher Woodward. Director, The Garden Museum
