My work begins with an attempt to have encounters with places and their inhabitants. I often engage people to perform playful actions that are abstractions of their everyday situation, re-appropriations or misuses of the space in which they take place. Works are documented in memory, installations of video, drawings and objects. Although much of my work is an exploration of urban public space I am increasingly interested in the complex relationship between humans, nature and other animals in an increasingly homogenized ecosystem. Works can be diverse in scale and orchestration—ranging from, creating a whistled code with a group of young men in the London financial district, documenting Mongolian nomads terminology for horse colors through western paint colors, filming a business woman climb over a public sculpture and to reenacting an ancient fox hunt in central London with a tribe of women—all are attempts to interrogates to how public spaces can be inhabited and transformed, working with ordinary people to subtly or poetically reclaim them.
Much of my work is informed from my rural upbringing. A recurring theme in my work is exploring the human-animal and attempting to inhabit a less anthropocentric outlook. My most recent work has returned to the theme of hunting and our conflicting relationship to other bodies, I am interested in what lies in its performativity as well as mankind’s constant attempt to colonize and yet separate itself from nature.
Laura Cooper / CV
Education
2012 Master of Fine Art Media | The Slade School of Art [UCL] London UK
2006 BA Hons 1st Class | Fine Art Painting | The Glasgow School of Art | Glasgow UK
Exhibitions / Performances
2017
New Normal | Gravity Performance (5mins) | The Hangar- Umam & Dawawine Beirut, Lebanon
Silence of the Valkyries | Internet Project for PRAKSIS Oslo, Norway
2016
Mucker Mate - Screening | hosted by PRAKSIS and Oslo Pilot, Oslo, Norway Community Spirit | St Lukes Church—A Global Committee Event | Brooklyn NY 2015
BRIC Arts Documentary Film Screening at The Bishop Gallery | Brooklyn NY Eyes As Sieves |Global Committee | Brooklyn NY
VideoGud | Video Program and Festival | touring across Sweden
Sound and the Urban Environment | ONCA Gallery | Brighton UK
[Solo] Nomadic Glow | Material Art Fair at Centro ADM PIRA | Mexico City
2014
LAM 360 degrees - Land Art Biennale Exhibition | National Union Of Mongolian Artists Gallery | Ulaanbaator, Mongolia
Always and Again | Steambox Research Center for the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art | Dublin, Ireland Voice and The Lens | Rich Mix Cinema | Spitalfields Music Festival | London, UK
A HUNT (part of Liz Magic Laser’s Bystander) | Recess | New York, USA
2013
[Solo] Work From the Inside Out | Perfolink, Connection Europa Link | Santiago Chile Work From the Inside Out (Collaboration with Ian Giles) | Art Licks Weekend | London, UK [Solo] In Pursuit | Franklin Furnace Fund; Performance Intervention | SoHo New York ,USA Voicing The Sound - Screening and Talk | AIR Gallery Brooklyn | New York USA
[Solo] Soft Revolutions | Space In Between Gallery | London, UK
Happiness Now | Guest Projects | London, UK
2012
He(a)rd | Performance |The Voice and The Lens | IKON Gallery Birmingham ,UK
We Are Temporary Structures [with Ian Giles] Participatory Performance, BP Saturdays | Tate Britain, UK
BIRDS [Screening] | Centre of Contemporary Art | Tallinn, Estonia
Game Play Place State | Collyer Bristow Gallery London, UK
Upstanding Platform 1 | Camden Arts Center |London, UK
2011
Inside The Line | Chester Performs | Chester, UK
Conduct | Public Performance| Deptford X festival 2011| London UK
A Hunt | Pool Side Emergency Performance Event | The Bluecoat Arts Centre | Liverpool, UK
Act II - Performance Event | Rhubaba Gallery | Edinburgh, UK
The Chalet Prize Glasgow - The Chalet | Glasgow, UK
Works in Video | Space in Between Gallery | London, UK
2010
SAP International Residency Program Exhibition | Stone and Water Gallery |Seoul South Korea
Slowness, Internet Performance / Installation | As Yet Unnamed - About Art | Bangkok Thailand & Streamed live on the Internet - Red Wire Gallery | Liverpool Biennial UK
2008
700IS Film Festival | Culture Centre of Fljo´tsdalshe´rað | Egilsstaðir, Iceland
Mediatised Sites Performance Festival| Live and Internet Performance at the British Arts Council Bangkok, Thailand & streamed live to Dance City | Newcastle, UK
Residencies
2016
PRAKSIS and Oslo Pilot Residency with artist Seamus Harahan, Oslo, Norway
2015
Centro ADM, Artist residency Program, Mexico City, Mexico
2014
LAM 360 degrees|, Land Art Biennale and Production Residency, Ulaanbator, Mongolia.
2012
I-Park Residency program, New York, USA.
2012
Residency and Workshop at New Arts Foundation, Hue City, Vietnam.
2011
Act II, Mini Residency, Rhubaba Gallery, Edinburgh Scotland.
2010
SAP Seoksu Market International Artist Residency Program, Seoul, South Korea.
2008
Artist Residency Program at Shrewsbury International School Bangkok, Thailand.
2005
Travel scholarship under Artist Estumo Kashihara, Kyoto, Japan (Kyoto Seika University).
Prizes/A wards
2014
Arts Council England International Travel Grant, UK.
2012/13
Franklin Furnace Grant Award for New Performance, New York City, USA.
2010-12
AHRC Block Grant funding, UCL, Slade School of Art Research based Masters Degree. 2008 Grants to Artists Awards Arts Council England, For the development of new work.
2006
Jock Mcphee Painting Prize for the Glasgow School of Art Painting Graduate 2006.
References Marianne Mulvey
Email; [email protected] Jane Parker
Head of Fine Art Media The Slade School of Art.
Email; [email protected]
Curator of Public Programmes at Tate Britain / Modern, And PhD student with Tate and Birkbeck in partnership with
Open School East and MIMA
![Color Poem [For Hyesou's Herd]](https://axiswebmedia.blob.core.windows.net/www/usermedia/5062766/work/0/5nwrrw58kegxpkly3im8q_large.jpg)