Where: The School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University, Perth
Artist: Janet Laurence
Collaborators: Curtin University, Event Engineering and Apparatus
Year: 2022
Photography credit: Frances Andrijich, 2022

‘CLIFF’ is a permanent site-specific installation by Janet Laurence, commissioned by Curtin University.

As described by Janet: “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.”