For Laura, drawing and painting can be meditative mediums for channelling thoughts and ideas. Her artistic method comprises of mark-making within the landscape and finds a sense of order in the chaos of the natural world through locating rhythm and language.
Simplicity/ Synchronicity
Sensitivity/ Anarchy
Light/ Disorientation
Claes Oldenburg visited London for the first time in October-November 1966 while preparing his first one-man show at the Robert Fraser Gallery, London.
"Created as a proposal for a gigantic monument at the Victoria Embankment, London. 'London Knees' (1966), was a very contemporary phenomenon, due to the recent invention of the miniskirt. It is difficult now to imagine how revolutionary this paradoxical combination of masculine voyeurism and feminine liberation seemed in its time. However, 'Knees' would not have qualified as the subject of a colossal monument, without links to other formal themes observed in London's surroundings, such as turrets and columns in the city's architecture or the ubiquitous posters of a government anti-smoking campaign showing heaps of butts, or 'fagends'. The architectural and fetishistic functions of 'Knees' was accentuated by the fashion of wearing boots with the mini, which created a sharply demarcated area of the body suitable for objectification." Oldenburg. Multiples in Retrospect.
From Oldenburg. Multiples in Retrospect pg 56
Sovay's newly commissioned site specific artwork for This Matter, conjours up curious feelings of the strange and unfamiliar. The form and scale of this anonymous self contained object, sits seemingly lightly within its carefully orchestrated position. This artwork does not look like it has accidently landed on earth but placed directly to confront the viewer.
Sovay retains a strong reference and link to the landscape, most particularly those environments that seem to show a lack of human intervention, areas that can exist in the imagination as wild places. It is this possibility for landscape in the imagination that she plays upon, considering its potential for escapism, and acts of daring and resilience, as can be found in fable and lore. This will be brought together with the continuing exploration into the visibility of narrative in the work that she makes. Physically the work is concerned with mass and the dynamic of individual pieces within a space; materials are used to emphasize the lure of escapism, yet also draw attention to its façade, and insubstantial nature.
Celia’s landscape observations are influenced by visiting remote building sites, roadsides and disused canals, putting herself in potentially dangerous situations. These places have evidence of a human presence, however they seem uninhabitable and unpopulated, which evokes a sense of loneliness and absurdity in her paintings.
Drawings are made on site and brought into the studio, where in a more reflective environment she can become intuitively involved in making a painterly response to the psychological.
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