By Robyn Quinn
A talented artist is bringing people together in a unique way – through flowers. Creating immersive installations with preserved natural materials, Rebecca Louise Law’s work is all about the deep connection we have with nature. It is also an opportunity to bring people together to participate in the creation of her installations.
Rebecca has wider practices including: painting, print, weaving, pottery and more. She has created installations across Europe and USA. Admirably, the artist has been collecting materials over the last 20 years and uses these alongside locally sourced materials given to her by parks, gardens and from commercial waste.
Recently, she exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery on Kings Road, London. In this installation, Rebecca transforms dead flowers, by attaching each bloom with string and hanging them in mid-air. She describes her approach as, “flowers are my paint and I work with space as my canvas.”
During the process of making the installation, Rebecca does not throw any flowers away and even collects the floral dust that falls. She does this because every flower is unique in its own way, as each specimen has diverse forms, colours and textures.
The Saatchi Gallery ran workshops where people were free to come and help prepare the flowers for the installation. Rebecca’s installations invited local people to contribute, often from schools and community groups. “I like involving others in the process, sharing a sense of ownership and starting relationships that continue whilst the artwork has gone. Those relationships are the legacy,” says Rebecca.
This artist is incredibly committed to sustainability. Her early commissions involved transforming large spaces with fresh flowers that dried in situ. Viewers were invited to witness this gradual transformation. Caring and being strongly dedicated to the environment, Rebecca Louise Law collects the flowers afterwards, taking them to her studio for drying and re-sculpting. Despite our efforts on recycling plastic, glass, paper and cardboard in order to help our planet, we often forget about the importance of flowers. Rebecca Louise Law claimed that “Flowers are a symbol of survival. In nature we wouldn’t have life without the death of a flower. As humans, we often take without noticing this exchange, we need to acknowledge it with gratitude. Without plants we would not exist”.