Download - Museum of Contemporary Art

Lauren Berkowitz
Born 1965, Melbourne, Victoria. Lives and Works Melbourne, Victoria.
The work [Sustenance (2010)] incorporates indigenous plants that are adaptable and suited to our harsh climate, as well as introduced species that
must be nurtured, watered and controlled, and [that in the] long-term are not sustainable; as our weather becomes more extreme, also included are
cactus plants that are self-sustaining in climatically harsh conditions. 8 Lauren Berkowitz, 2010
Lauren Berkowitz is a prominent Melbourne-based installation artist, primarily concerned with creating ephemeral and site-specific works made
produced various recycled materials. Since the early 1990s, Berkowitz has accumulated and utilised a range of objects from nature and everyday
modern living to create sculptures and installations intended for gallery exhibition, museum displays and public spaces. Her works are often
temporal, or constructed only for the duration of their display, and are composed of consumer waste materials and botanical detritus either
associated with, or collected within, the immediate locality in which they are displayed.
For Berkowitz, the ever-changing modern-day landscape is both a source of inspiration and a resource for her art-making. Collecting
is an important aspect of her practice and each individual work represents the fruits of extensive labour and research. By collating,
assembling and re-arranging a combination of found objects, both natural and
human-made, the artist not only participates in an active engagement with the world
around us, but also instigates an ecological imperative in her art making practice,
transforming proverbial environmental issues into tangible acts of regeneration.
For this exhibition, Berkowitz delivers her distinctively ecological take on site-specificity and
the wastage perpetuated by humanity. Bags (1994/2010), is an expanded reconstruction of a
previous sculptural installation, made again expressly for display in the MCA galleries. For this
piece, Berkowitz enlisted the help of volunteers, including MCA staff, to collect the 3000 recycled
plastic shopping bags required to realise the installation. Attached to two parallel frameworks of
netting, and suspended mid-gallery space to create a gigantic aerated corridor, this work invites
viewers to pass through a vast wall of discarded waste and physically comprehend the enormity of
the environmental consequence to our collective everyday actions. Minimalist in its approach and
recyclable in its aesthetic 9 , the work’s temporality forces us to realise that, at the conclusion of
the exhibition, these temporarily re-valued objects of beauty are destined to rejoin the (re)cycle of
our mass-produced plastic consumables.
Sustenance (2010) is a new installation project commissioned by the MCA specifically for this
exhibition. The project began many months ago, with Berkowitz undertaking extensive research
into the edible and medicinal qualities of various indigenous plants, succulents, and European
and Asian herbs and vegetables found in New South Wales. 10 The artist then recruited a number
of school students, community groups and green-thumbed individuals to assist in growing a
collection of potted plants. In total, the artist presents 650 plants, with 300 on exhibition at any
one time. What we see in the galleries is at once the material realisation of the project in the
gallery space, both inside and out, and the ongoing cultivation of the plants as living organisms.
Assembled along a low table made from recycled timber, and rotated on a regular basis from the
Above, from top to botom:
Plants being grown in preparation for Sustenance (detail),
2010
The Erskineville Community Garden, 52-54 Erskineville Rd,
Erskineville.
MCA Level 3 terrace, these miscellaneous specimens have been replanted into provisional pots generated from recycled plastic bottles and containers.
Drawing inspiration from an ever-maturing environmental consciousness and exploring the artistic potential of cultural sustainability, Berkowitz’
installations resonate meaningfully within a contemporary landscape of change and complexity. After the closure of the exhibition, the plants
included in Sustenance will be given back to the growers, schools and community members who nurtured them in preparation for the exhibition.
8 Lauren Berkowitz cited in Rachel Kent, ‘Lauren Berkowitz’, In the Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010, p.30
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid
10