Questions and activities
Think about the full title of this exhibition. What type of transportation is being referred to? Look at the works that have been included. Considering the exhibition title, are the images what you expected? Discuss.
Collect images of airports and planes. What makes them different or similar to Rosemary Laing’s images? What makes her images distinctive? How do they make you feel?
Have you ever been to an airport? Recall what you remember or imagine what you might see. Research what goes on behind the scenes of an airport.
How long do people spend in an airport? Is anyone ever settled in that space or do they only pass through? List words to describe how you might feel when you are there. Find a space or place near you that people move through, but do not inhabit. Spend time in this place observing and recording everything that happens. Create an artwork based on your observations.
By photographing the industrial and in-between spaces in which flight occurs, what comment is Laing making in relation to the way we exist in the world?
Choose an artwork in this exhibition. How has Laing conveyed a sense of speed? How fast or slow is the movement? Why do you think she wants to show us this particular aspect?
What do you think is meant by hyperreal? Think about some of the words that have been used to describe Laing’s hyperreal landscape panoramas eg stretched, elastic, distorted, warped, disrupted, lurid. Use these words as a starting point to create your own hyperreal landscape.