THIS weekend a brand new art showcase is opening at Cample Line.
From Saturday, the Thornhill gallery is exhibiting a collection of ten installations crafted by sculptor, Laura Aldridge.
The artist uses primarily ceramic and textiles to craft what she describes as “an expanded form of collage”. In her upcoming show, titled sumVigour, Laura unveils the pieces she has created in her studio over recent months.
Laura said that, since the start of the pandemic, she’s been “focused on allowing ideas to flow and for things to become something sometimes, or nothing other times”.
She added: “Just before the pandemic I made a research trip to San Francisco in the US to visit Creative Growth in Oakland, and it cracked something open in me … I wanted to just make for a while and see where it got me.
“An idea of functionality and use helped to get me started – that usually begins with thinking about a particular person, as an anchor that I soon set off from as I get into making. It brings about an affection for what I am making as it is a very slow process that I have to invest in.”
Taking several different forms and scales, the sculptor’s work derives from her deep-seated instinct for colour and texture, and from the distinctive approach she takes to her craft and carefully considering materials – and their possibilities.
Laura’s body of work moves freely between wall-based reliefs and sculptural assemblages of installations, playing the abilities of ‘collage’ to operate in two and three-dimensions. Furthermore, she often arranges elements of her works upon tables, low plinths or across gallery walls to bring ‘things’ together so that they might merge as a standalone piece of work.
Explaining the exhibition’s title, Laura said: “I wanted to combine some words, to make a new thought for what I was doing. I noticed how words increasingly appear as hashtags and how, often, this affects how you read and take in information. ‘Sum’ works for me because to hear it, you could be saying ‘some’ – as in ‘with some vigour’ – but to see and read it – it speaks of addition, of two or more of something. Then, to have that mundane word next to something much bigger and more assertive – VIGOUR. I like it because it speaks to something beyond the singular – to groups, combines and energy.”
sumVigour will run at Cample Line from June 19 to August 29. The exhibition is free to visit, but pre-booking is essential. More information can be found at www.campleline.org.uk.
