weather #3

The series ‘weather’ continues the focus on a female performer that has paralleled Laing’s work with images of the Australian landscape. While her two series with brides hovering in the sky included views with distant mountains and horizon lines, in weather the landscape is altogether absent. Natural forces are implied in the title however and what we actually see is a woman swept up in hurricane like forces, spun in the air and surrounded by debris which on closer inspection turns out to be shredded newspaper.

The weather in this series is staged and entirely unnatural and yet the newspapers that swirl in a vortex around the performer are all comprised of cut up articles on climate change, environmental concerns and extreme weather. The background and performers clothing are tonally a muted grey, with the only brighter colour from the printed inks on the papers. She spins out of control within a maelstrom of printed matter, so many words that demand action and yet action continues to be elusive. The woman seems subject to forces beyond her control, tossed around within ecological debates, a victim of hot air and talk rather than action.