Lauren often uses her body as a medium to traverse these artforms. Previous works have taken the form of immersive kinetic installations that are part performance, part anthropological study and part sculpture.
Lauren works with everyday materials, which she activates in playful ways to change their inherent qualities. She works with unpredictability and chance to challenge and push her body and her ideas beyond their perceived capacity, thus transmuting their original form. By relinquishing control in her work she aims to reach a place of neutrality and collaboration. This process is assisted by working with ephemeral and fragile materials, such as light, paper, plastics and other natural and man-made items.
Lauren’s practice encompasses themes of mysticism, symbolism, energy and biological rhythms. These form together to conceptualise the invisible forces of our inner and outer worlds.
Since graduating from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Contemporary Art Majoring in Painting and Drawing (2002) Lauren’s work has evolved beyond the page and into installation and performance. During 2011 she undertook a residency in Berlin Takt Kunstprojektraum which fuelled the development of her performance work, allowing her to expand ideas and create a synergy between sculpture, sound, movement and performance. During 2013 and 2014 Lauren undertook a mentorship with one of Australia’s leading performance artists Jill Orr. In 2014 Lauren’s work Flashlight was presented at Dancehouse. She regularly seeks opportunities to collaborate with others and during 2015 she participated in David Cross and Jem Noble’s House of Wisdom, Margaret Lawrence Gallery. During 2016 Lauren created work for festival Love/City, Hotel Obscura as part of FOLA, Artshouse and Gertrude Street Projection Festival. During 2016 her work Unseen was presented at Metanoia’s Live Art season in Brunswick. She undertook a residency at SIM in Reykjavik Iceland and a residency with Yanira Castro (USA) at Dancehouse. She has received grants from NAVA, City of Yarra, Moreland City Council and Creative Victoria
Astron
Astron references the unseen elements in our world such as the carbon atom, the origins of life, to emphasise our shared humanity and link to each other and nature.
Formed in the belly of stars, carbon is the backbone of every living thing. It is an abundant key ingredient in our lives in the form of fuel for plants via light and photosynthesis and its by-product, oxygen which we breath. It forms the basis for some of the strongest materials on earth such as diamonds and graphite.
Astron is flexible and scalable. For this first iteration of the work I will be using a wood frame painted in soft pinks, oranges and yellow. I have chosen these colours to reference a shifting light colour spectrum and to provide a contrast against its chosen environment. Suspended with industrial strength cable, the internal wooden hexagonal frame will be filled with yellow and multi-coloured perspex which, when layered change colour and also reflect into the sculpture and water below. The sculpture reflects, channels and focuses light much like that of a telescope or eye. Beneath the sculpture is a square shallow pool filled with water emulating a mirror which reflects the work and sky above. The reflection references that even although we are looking at one carbon atom, we are looking at the expanse of the universe and that everything is connected through our gaze.
Though it is not fragile in materiality, the concept itself explores the fragility of life.