Rosemary Laing
FLIGHT RESEARCH #5
MARCH TO MAY 8, 2003
Socrates Sculpture Park is pleased to present the
sixth in an ongoing series of billboard projects.
Flight Research #5 by Australian artist Rosemary Laing is an adaptation of a 1999 photograph, translated into a 10 x 28 foot seamless vinyl billboard. The photograph is of a bride poised in a moment of stillness, suspended mid flight against the horizon line of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Laing is one of Australia's leading photo-media artists and this is her first large-scale outdoor installation in the United States.
Flight Research #5 continues Rosemary's interest in flight, a topic she has worked with since 1994. After a period of research into the mechanics of flight, working with Qantas and then with NASA, she became interested in the concept of liberating the body in space. Laing's photographs span a wide range of ideas and images: from advanced aerospace flight technology to a bride levitating over Australia's Blue Mountains.
"Flight sits in our consciousness as a kind
of fantasy or dream. It is a metaphorical notion. Children dream of flying.
It is a very escapist notion to be able to fly. Superheros fly. Then you've
got Yves Klein's Leap into the Void. I was interested in unfettering the
body from the mechanics of flight."
- Rosemary Laing
Rosemary Laing was born in Brisbane, Australia
in 1959. She initially trained as a painter and has been exploring conceptually
based photography and performance since the 1980s. Laing's work has been
included in numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas including:
Faux/Real, Borusan Culture and Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey (2002); bulletproofglass,
Galerie Lelong, New York (2002); Tales of the Unexpected, National Gallery
of Australia, Canberra (2002); aero-zone, The National Museum of Art Osaka,
Japan (1999).
Rosemary Laing's current exhibition schedule includes two solo shows at
Galerie Conrads Dusseldorf, Germany and at Brisbane City Gallery, Australia;
and her work is now on view at ARCO Madrid. Rosemary is the recipient
of a residency at the Greene Street Studio, New York from March through
May 2003.
The Socrates Sculpture Park billboard is located above the main entrance to the Park and is visible from lower Broadway, and from the intersection of 11th Street and Vernon Boulevard.
Socrates Sculpture Park Billboard Projects are sponsored by The Shuree Abrams Foundation.
Rosemary is represented by Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, Galerie Conrads, Düsseeldorf, and Galerie Lelong, New York
For further information and images, please contact Robyn Donohue (x 13)
or
Lisa Gold (x 12) (718) 956-1819 or info@socratessculpturepark.org.