'I want you to linger': how Janet Laurence's art compels you to save the earth

Three decades ago, the Australian artist was told her focus on nature was too feminine. Today, it’s a matter of urgency
Janet Laurence is wearing a living plant in a glass vial around her neck. The bright pop of green stands out against her flowing white dress. It’s as if she’s just stepped out of one of her own artworks – perhaps the one in which endangered rainforest plants are grown in beakers of laboratory glass, with lines of transparent tubing connecting the plants&