at the weekend i finally got around to doing something i've been wanting to do for a while, but just couldn't find the time or the inclination to travel for: spend an afternoon out in the royal botanic gardens in kew. in truth it only took about an hour to get there, which is nothing, really, but it's one of those places you say you'll visit more often, and just never do. well, all that changed when instagram alerted us to the addition of a new exhibit in the gardens, called "life in death". the exhibition is on until early march, but obviously - wanting to see it sooner rather than later, we booked our tickets online and planned to spend the day wandering from garden to garden, so long as the sun shone.
and shone, it sort of did, but not without those inevitable grey london clouds to keep our hopes under wraps. it was a little chilly, sure, but there's nothing lovelier than the tingle in your nose when you step out of the humid and tropical greenhouses into the crisp winter air is there? when that fresh air hits your face and makes you blink back sharp, icy tears, and you sort of lose your breath a little? trust me to romanticise the cold, but.. after spending the day with a bunch of australians and kiwis and a spaniard - you come to really discover your sun-seekers from your heat-hiders, and i am most definitely the latter!
rebecca louise law's exhibition inside the shirley sherwood gallery is her most intricate and large-scale to date. "life in death" consists of one thousand preserved flower garlands, that rebecca saved and collected over a six year period. inspired by the egyptian burial garlands of ramesses the second, rebecca's interactive artwork is delicate, feminine, and demonstrates the evolution of flowers and plants over the decades, from medicine, nutrition, to what we ultimately see them as today: decoration. i don't really "get" art, we know this, but it was very pretty. it looked a lot well-lit online, though, which was a bit of a disappointment when we actually got there - hence the badly-lit pictures. the exhibition is on until march 11th, and it's definitely worth a look if you're headed to kew anyway - the exhibition is included in the regular ticket price.
