Featured Artist: Laura Findlay
Laura Findlay. Tom and His Father’s Books from ‘The Relics’ series. Archival Inkjet Print. 2011
Laura’s practice explores absence, nostalgia, memory, and the im/possibility of how we come to know those who have died. Through the objects and memories that are still with us, Laura draws on personal history and the histories of friends and strangers through the medium of photography.
The Relics series explores the struggle to know someone after they die. Through photographs, video portraits, and one-on-one interviews with her subjects, Laura looks closely at their relationships to departed loved ones and the objects they left behind that still hold significance. Together, the images in The Relics offer in part a portrait of the deceased and also a revealing image of grief, absence, and curiosity from the friends and family who are left to bear the loss and weight of a death.
Laura Findlay. Dad and His Table Setting from ‘The Relics’ Series. Archival Inkjet Print. 2011.
Three Women, None of Whom are Sisters is a new series she is currently working on that aims to examine Laura’s continued investigation into the objects and personalities of her mother, grandmother, and great-aunt–loved ones who have all passed away. As they were the most influential women in her life, Three Womenlooks at the role their absence and possessions have played.
For the Jean Berger Project Laura will adapt Three Women to the period of eighteenth-century New France. Drawing on her family’s long history in Quebec and historical documentation of women in Montreal during the era of Jean Berger, Laura will create a new series of work that will address the gaps in knowledge about women during this time.
Laura recently completed her BFA at Concordia. To learn more about her practice, visit www.laurafindlay.com.
Laura Findlay. Alex and His Grandfather’s Gun from ‘The Relics Series.’ Archival Inkjet Print. 2011.
