Installation Art

In her latest body of work, Laura Davidson explores the fulfillment from parenting while pursuing a career and the challenges of feeling stretched thin in both realms. The labor of caregiving at home, after working a full day at a paid job, is known in sociology and feminist theory as "second shift." Laura created this body of artwork in the staggered moments in between working full time and parenting a toddler.

 

Each of the hundreds of pieces of these intricate installations created for her solo show were hand built through slow processes in the artist's pursuit of reconnecting to herself. All pieces consist of post consumer materials reworked into sculptural objects that explore the strength and fragility of paper and domestic textiles. Rough, cast paper objects blend with soft sculptures resembling objects of comfort in site specific installations designed to immerse the viewer into the frantic momentum of trying to maintain identity and relationships while nurturing a small child.

Paper works
My work with paper is, at its core, a result of my need to divert waste into objects of value. The previous use of the papers shredded into the pulp give the objects symbolic meaning beyond their aesthetic. The act of tearing and breaking down documents, jotted thoughts, and other remnants of our daily lives connects us to the impermanence of these moments. As they are reformed into new papers or cast objects, the essence of the materials' old life remains, though often unrecognizable. The papers' original content may have been precious or important, but like everything else in our lives was fleeting. Even these completed artworks may be broken back down into pulp and reformed into new pieces again and again.

Textile Works
My grandmother taught me to sew pillow cases when I was six years old, starting my lifelong obsession with fabrics and assemblage. Often my work starts with a found material from a garage sale or thrift shop, is added to my collection, and transforms from my original idea as I create. I prefer slow processes of sewing and weaving by hand; they give me a reprieve from our culture obsessed with efficiency. These repetitive tasks serve as meditation and give me time to process and edit the final artwork.