The recent passing of the prolific and perceptive Queensland-born artist Rosemary Laing (1959–May 2024) leaves a void in the contemporary Australian art world, which was made richer and more thought-provoking because of her critical eye.
Having initially studied painting, Laing found her artistic voice in the 1990s after mastering the medium of photography. Her underlying interest in this early period was in digital imaging software and its potential to influence visual language. Counterintuitively, she always created her artworks ‘in-camera’ without the use of 3D computer-generated imagery or Photoshop.
Rosemary Laing ‘groundspeed (Red Piazza) #2’ 2001

Laing’s focus quickly extended to picturing places that were either restricted, remote, or made remarkable by her ingenious choreography. Through this imagery, she engaged with the politics of place and ruminated on historical events that continue to impact the present, becoming known for expansive, cinematic views of the Australian landscape and enigmatic figures within it. Her ambitious and sumptuous intervention groundspeed (Red Piazza) #2 2001 (illustrated), presenting a rush of red carpet through a lush forest, continues to stand as an iconic moment in her practice.
Rosemary Laing ‘bulletproofglass #7’ 2002

Another of Laing’s distinctive, panoramic photographs in the QAGOMA Collection, bulletproofglass #7 2002 (illustrated), reveals her courage as an artist. The work followed the more optimistic ‘flight research’ series 1998–2000 (flight research #5 1999 illustrated), that the art critic and curator Abigail Solomon-Godeau has noted was made just prior to the Australia’s referendum on whether the nation should become a republic.1 By contrast, the ‘bulletproofglass’ series, made after the vote was cast against independence, presented startling visions of women wounded and plummeting from a cloud-filled sky, speaking to a history of violence and growing political division.
Rosemary Laing ‘flight research #5’ 1999

Laing’s uniquely Australian points of reference and her capacity to capture universal truths saw her work included in important international exhibitions — among them the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); ‘DistURBANces’, Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg (2013); ‘Paradise Lost’, Museum Henriette Polak, Zutphen, The Netherlands (2019); and ‘This Mortal Coil’, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta (2021) — and her representation in collections such as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Castile-León Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain; and the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France.
Characterised by visual and socio-political complexities, Rosemary Laing’s legacy is as optically rich and perplexing as it is provocative. With her death, we have lost a bold and courageous voice that will be sadly missed, though it lives on through her images that have embedded themselves in our collective consciousness.
Samantha Littley, Curator, Australian Art, and Peter McKay, Curatorial Manager Australian Art
Endnotes
1 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, ‘Rosemary Laing’, Piper Press, Sydney, 2012, p.29.
2 George Alexander, Graham Forsyth, Blair French, Annemarie Jonson, ‘Rosemary Laing: A survey 1995-2002’, Brisbane City Gallery / Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, 2002, p.29.
3 Solomon-Godeau, ‘Rosemary Laing’, p.31.
#QAGOMA