Laura Splan
O Guilherme deixou aqui a sugestão de um link da artista plástica americana Laura Splan. Ela tem uns trabalhos conceptuais engraçados e curiosos — gostei especialmente das almofadas e do cachecol. O facto de haver muitas referências no seu trabalho à medicina e às ciências não deve ser alheio ao facto de ela ter estudado microbiologia ao mesmo tempo que estudava artes, além do background na área da medicina que existe na sua família.
“My work explores perceptions of beauty and horror, comfort and discomfort. I use anatomical and medical imagery as a point of departure to explore these dualities and our ambivalence towards the human body. Viruses, blood, and x-rays of bones and viscera can be at once unsetting and enticing. I often combine scientific images and materials with more domestic or familiar ones. The ornamentation of wallpaper or the design of a doily lends a sort of relief in its familiarity and pleasing pattern. This juxtaposition creates a response that fluctuates between seduction and repulsion, comfort and alienation. I try to create work that evokes a dichotomous experience with formal imagery that upon closer inspection reveals some uncomfortable truth about our cultural and biological conditions. My work attempts to challenge our constructed responses to these images by triggering a double take in which the viewer re-evaluates their initial perceptions.”