February 2020
Laura’s work encompasses painting, collage, sculpture, moving image and installation. She collects archival images that trigger personal memories and stories. She removes images from their original context and revisits them as subjects for paintings. This results in fragmented narratives that are anecdotal or based on local folklore. She collects found objects from second-hand shops and natural materials from walking in the land. Discarded objects are reused as surfaces for paintings or materials for sculptures that reference the passing of time and subtly shift the meaning of the original. Her video work is otherworldly, subtly humorous and illusory. Drawing on the aesthetics of science fiction films, she uses unusual materials to invent a world where the familiar becomes strange. A recent project was based on ‘the lost acre’ in Irish folklore, it refers to an area in the landscape where you can be lead astray. This enchantment can last for several hours during which your time is unaccounted for and familiar places may look different. In the Irish language the phenomenon is known as Fóidin Mearbhaill, or treacherous soil. Often, a person might hear their name called or see someone they thought they knew and follow, only to be found hours or days or even weeks later with no memory of how they came to be miles away from where they should be.
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