Walking into a Painting: Rebecca Louise Law's Art Installation of Flowers at TMA

Rebecca Louise Law's art installation at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) was almost like standing under my Weeping Cherry tree in full bloom. We were immersed in a painting.  

Imagine walking into a blooming regalia of  flowers and plants, garden flowers and wild flowers, leaf petals, cones and seeds, all strung in long garlands and magical strands, floating down from a high ceiling, surrounded by the sights, smells and textures of our natural world. This was the world British artist Rebecca Louise Law created in her lovely installation now at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA).

My sister Andy, friend Teddy, and I immersed ourselves in the experience, comforted and enveloped in this beautiful creation. In touch with an Ohio sense of place, deliberately so, Law used flowers and plants indigenous to the Toledo area as the sculptural material for her art. A group of community members and volunteers helped pick, sort and preserve the flowers, and there were thousands upon thousands of them. The exhibit was the kind of  experience Law intended us to have, "to get visitors to physically experience a painting."

Rebecca Law was made for this kind of art, coming as she did from seven generations of artists on her mother's side, and seven generations of gardners on her dad's side.  "My very first installation with flowers was called Dahlia," the artist said.  "My dad grew them in our garden." (arTMAtters, May-August 2018).

TMA Director of Curatorial Affairs Halona Norton-Westbrook became familiar with Law's work when  she lived in London. "The installations...are truly immersive," she said.  Law "melds together aspects of sculpture, painting, and installation art into a singular experience."

We didn't have the words, but we felt them as we walked through the unique installation.

At lunch I asked Andy and Teddy if they thought this kind of exhibit was art.  Oh yes, they both agreed. The installation was like a living painting, with wonderful composition, design, movement, texture.  They liked the colors, the shapes, the arrangements of strands of daisies next to a garland of hydrangea next to a garland of dried leaves from native Ohio trees. They loved the details, such fantastic details, and the larger picture they created. I wholeheartedly agreed. Rebecca Law's exhibit is a beautiful work of art and a wonderful respite from the daily anxieties of our contemporary lives.