Laura Splan
FORM FOLLOWS INFECTION
Born in Memphis, Tenessee
Works in Brooklyn, New York
Intricate lace doilies, trellis-patterned wallpaper, a delicately embroidered negligée – all of these objects imply a tradition-bound domestic setting from the past, the realm of the grandmother rather than the avant-garde artist or conceptual designer. But in the hands of artist Laura Splan, such familiar domestic icons take on surprisingly complex and contradictory roles.
By employing historic craft models, she offers a nonthreatening entry point into her work. But once there, it is rich with subtle surprises and conceptual challenges that border on the strange. The doilies are patterned after microscopic images of dangerous, often lethal viruses (Influenza, Herpes, Hepadna, HIV, SARS), the traditional patterned wallpaper is printed with her own blood, and the luminous negligée “fabric” is dried liquid facial peel that she has removed from her own skin and constructed into a garment that upon closer inspection reveals the telltale ridges and follicles of human skin. Each of these pieces on view in Manuf®actured is beautiful and seductive at the same time as they are arresting, even disturbing.
Although meticulously created, Splan’s work reflects not the traditional mark of the hand but rather a conceptual bodily presence. Her conscious choice of unconventional materials married with her devotion to craft-based object-making techniques makes her work difficult to categorize as art, craft or design, and by adding in the realm of biological and medical imagery and implements, she pushes the artistic limits of all three into provocative new territory.
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
Laura Splan, Doilies (Herpes), 2004; Edition of 10 + 2 AP;
Computerized machine embroidery with thread, velvet, wood,
Plexiglas; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Doilies (SARS), 2004; Edition of 10 + 2 AP;
Computerized machine embroidery with thread, velvet, wood,
Plexiglas; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Doilies (Influenza), 2004; Edition of 10 + 2 AP;
Computerized machine embroidery with thread, velvet, wood,
Plexiglas; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Doilies (HIV), 2004; Edition of 10 + 2 AP;
Computerized machine embroidery with thread, velvet, wood,
Plexiglas; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Doilies (Hepadna), 2004; Edition of 10 + 2 AP;
Computerized machine embroidery with thread, velvet, wood,
Plexiglas; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Trousseau (Negligee #1), 2007; Facial peel,
machine embroidery; Collection of the artist
Laura Splan, Wallpaper, 2008; Blood on wallpaper;
Collection
of the artist
Laura Splan, Underneath, 2005; Courtesy of the artist;
Total running time: 24:20 minutes
