firstsite contemporary art colchester

Laura White

11 February – 18 March 2006
Laura White
Still life/Long life

firstsite presents Still life/Long life, a commissioned work by London-based artist Laura White. This remarkable piece combines video projection with static objects; these work together to create a sculptural installation.

White’s practice explores the contrasts and tensions between natural and man-made environments. As with Still life/Long life ordinary, inexpensive articles often form the basis for her work. These are combined by the artist with moving imagery of animals in artificial and natural habitats. Through her deliberate projection of nature onto artificial matter, White seeks to investigate notions of reality, perception, object and image.

In her new work the artist juxtaposes a collection of household objects and a video recorded herd of Friesian cows. As such, both components of the work are familiar and everyday. The arranged domestic items echo a cityscape; itself a constructed landscape. Food storage containers, buckets and other mundane objects are piled up to create a still life which varies in texture and materials to recall painted still life scenes found throughout art history.

The use of different types of objects in Still life/Long life affects our perception of the projected image; opaque and coloured plastics combine and mean the cows’ appearance becomes fragmented into sections and surfaces. She masks off the moving image so it is only visible on the containers. To this end projection and image become combined visually and physically.

The artist’s sculptures act as literal representations of how we tend to view the natural world: through man-made frames. In this way White enables us to consider how authentic this experience can really be; her work refers to our creation of spaces to view animals for entertainment, for example in zoos, safari parks and even on television.

In previous works the artist has tended to connect more exotic animals with more simple structures: videos of parrots, elephants and rhinoceroses have been projected onto cardboard boxes, plastic bags and deckchairs alike. Still life/Long life demonstrates a development in White’s practice, seeing her animate increasingly structured arrangements of objects with more familiar wildlife.

	Laura White 11 February – 18 March 2006 Laura White Still life/Long life firstsite presents Still life/Long life, a commissioned work by London-based artist Laura White. This remarkable piece combines video projection with static objects; these work together to create a sculptural installation. White’s practice explores the contrasts and tensions between natural and man-made environments. As with Still life/Long life ordinary, inexpensive articles often form the basis for her work. These are combined by the artist with moving imagery of animals in artificial and natural habitats. Through her deliberate projection of nature onto artificial matter, White seeks to investigate notions of reality, perception, object and image. In her new work the artist juxtaposes a collection of household objects and a video recorded herd of Friesian cows. As such, both components of the work are familiar and everyday. The arranged domestic items echo a cityscape; itself a constructed landscape. Food storage containers, buckets and other mundane objects are piled up to create a still life which varies in texture and materials to recall painted still life scenes found throughout art history. The use of different types of objects in Still life/Long life affects our perception of the projected image; opaque and coloured plastics combine and mean the cows’ appearance becomes fragmented into sections and surfaces. She masks off the moving image so it is only visible on the containers. To this end projection and image become combined visually and physically. The artist’s sculptures act as literal representations of how we tend to view the natural world: through man-made frames. In this way White enables us to consider how authentic this experience can really be; her work refers to our creation of spaces to view animals for entertainment, for example in zoos, safari parks and even on television. In previous works the artist has tended to connect more exotic animals with more simple structures: videos of parrots, elephants and rhinoceroses have been projected onto cardboard boxes, plastic bags and deckchairs alike. Still life/Long life demonstrates a development in White’s practice, seeing her animate increasingly structured arrangements of objects with more familiar wildlife.