WHERE IS EVERYONE

Stour Space

1 July - 31 July

Lara Gallagher is a French/British artist who, after following an international education in the South of France and Australia, moved to London to pursue her studies in Visual Communication. Elements of this can been seen through her use of hard edged lines and bold designs. She has been based there ever since and has showcased her work in various galleries in London and Europe. Her work is influenced by her interest in exoteric sciences such as psychology and neuroscience, as well as the esoteric sciences such as astrotheology and witchcraft.

The ink drawings focus on examining the excess and/or lack of inner and outer limitations of life. It looks at one’s need for freedom, whether it be through the material or the immaterial, opulence or austerity, pleasure or deprivation. Through this scope, a wide variety of themes are explored : life vs death, nature vs nurture, masculine vs feminine, cause vs consequence. Living in a binary world everything exists according to its opposite and numerous questions arise.

How do we define one without the other?
How do we identify which is which?
Are they individual or embedded into each other?

The work expresses the forever cohabitation of duality within unity as well as the threefold nature of all things. Within each project varying sizes and interpretations can be seen as a reflection of such a statement. Three levels of understanding are always found – literal, inferential, propositional. This refers back to the microcosm/macrocosm theory. It can be interpreted as profoundly intimate or openly universal, both being equally relevant and accurate.

The idea of a limited reality within a forever multiplying universe is also a recurring concept. Each piece is part of a wider project that are constructed as one yet invariably displayed as individual works of art. They would not exist on there own but once created become a piece in themselves.

The new set of work focuses on the theme of ‘nature/nurture’. The works are a deconstruction of older pieces, cut-up and reorganised according to two sets of grids, one random and one systematically designed, overlapping structure and discord in their intertwined nature. Three levels of understanding emerge through three different dimensions. Three levels of understanding are seen through three different compositions; cellular, figurative, abstract.
The work aims to ask the questions:

What defines us as living entities?
Do we react according to innate instincts?
Are we influenced by our upbringing and environment?
Can this be over-ridden?
It also questions the essence of what is considered ‘nature’, within our control, and what is considered ‘nurture’, out of our control?