JANET LAURENCE CLIFF, CURTIN UNIVERSITY

2022

Janet Laurence’s permanent site-specific installation ‘CLIFF’ is now installed at The School of Design and the Built Environment Building, at Curtin University, Perth.

About the project, Janet shares: “Imagine you are climbing a cliff, as you ascend the viewing staircase. CLIFF brings you the earth, not as a representation but as presentation of Earth itself, in the form of rocks each with its own story - of time, weather, movement, and formation.

If the building is a wunderkammer, these stones can be seen as exhibits, but unlike a Natural History Museum, they have been released from their modes of exhibiting. Instead, they create the suggestion of mapping the landscape. I want the art to enable a direct experience of the Western Australia landscape as enspirited matter and memory of the earth.”

This project was commissioned by Curtin University and completed with support from Event Engineering and Apparatus. The recently completed building was designed by John Wardle Architects.