"For me it is about the conversation between materials and approaches, allowing the work to discuss and emphasise strategies of making and reception through different choices. The push and pull between dualities such as synthetic versus natural, object versus subject, inside versus outside runs throughout my practice and prevents the meaning of an artwork [from] becoming prescriptive. This way of working allows for a kind of language of comparison. It affords me space to articulate my interests in a way that doesn't pin down the work or explain it away; rather, it provides me with a framework to take risks with the practice. It's not so easy to be able to say what something is doing while you are doing it, but as long as I am inside that tension you're speaking of, I know I am onto something."
-Laura Aldridge
Laura Aldridge (b. 1978) works with various materials, including photography, screenprinting, ceramics, fabric, found objects, and cement. Moving between wall-based reliefs and sculptural installations, she builds a scene that engages the viewer, playing on the capacity of "collage" to operate in two and three dimensions. Her works explore touch and focus on sensation and feeling, using materials and images that carry psychological overtones and challenge the boundary between the natural and the artificial. Her visual and sculptural language engages with femininity through homely, almost folksy constructions combined with pastel colors, highlighting energy and playfulness while also pointing to a strange sense of dislocation.
This volume presents Aldridge's recent and older works, and features an interview and three original essays about her practice.
Texts by Tina Fiske, Joe Scotland, Louise Shelley, Linsey Young
