Laura McMorrow | The Gardener Digs

Laura McMorrow's solo exhibition of paintings at The Dock in County Leitrim is now open.

The Gardener Digs is taken from an extract of Derek Jarman's Modern Nature - the legendary account of Jarman's time while planting and tending to his garden in Dungeness following his HIV diagnoses - and presents a series of small-scale paintings that meditate on gardens as a place of refuge, sanctity and remedy. The exhibition draws paralells between Modern Nature and McMorrow's own mother, an avid gardener who suffered from a chronic and fatal illness, and like Jarman turned to gardening as a form of therapy.

"The gardener digs in another time, without past or future, beginning or end. A time that does not cleave the day with rush hours, lunch breaks, the last bus home. As you walk in the garden you pass into this time — the moment of entering can never be remembered. Around you the landscape lies transfigured. Here is the Amen beyond the prayer." - Derek Jarman, Modern Nature.

McMorrow's research-based practice brings together a pictorial study of plants, gardens and managed landscapes, as well as people enjoying gardens and green spaces. It references the artist's concerns around climate, raising questions about gardening's impact on the environment both historically and in the present day, and in a broader context, examines our relationship with the landscape and the greater environment.

Discover more about Laura McMorrow by clicking here.

Click here for more information on The Gardener Digs.