The British contemporary artist creates large-scale installations where natural materials are hand-sewn onto copper wire and suspended from gallery walls.
Viewers navigate around and through them, discovering colors, textures and smells.
The artist said working with something as ephemeral as a flower is meant to inspire a deeper appreciation for the natural world.
"There's something about this kind of spiritual connection that we have with nature,” she said. "It’s something we can't necessarily put into words, because it's within us all. We're all part of nature; we're all part of this cycle."
Her newest installation is inside the Museum of Botany and the Arts at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. The building is a historic home, which presented a unique challenge for Law.
“This museum is a house, so going from a gallery environment of a white cube, I’ve now entered into a domestic environment with rooms and hallways," she said. "So, I felt like this needed to be more of a cabinet of curiosity rather than a sculpture.”
She calls the show "Survival," a nod to preservation work by Selby's horticulture team.
When they step into the foyer, visitors are greeted by vertical rows of 19-foot-long garlands of blooms.
The pictures of the exhibit are stunning — but as the artist admits, photos alone can't really capture the experience of stepping into a suspended sky of preserved flowers.
“I think what's really hard with the digital and the 2D is that is really difficult to capture something that you’re feeling,” she says. “The pictures are brilliant, but they'll never be what it feels like to be inside that many flowers.”
The flowers are dead, but not decayed. Each bloom — Law said — is a reflection of our world and its fragility.
So, take some time to smell the roses.
"The Orchid Show 2025: Rebecca Louise Law" is on view at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, and runs through Dec. 7, 2025.
