Laura Compton

My sculptural practice explores uncanniness in response to different geological and architectural sites, considering what may be hiding behind physical boundaries and surfaces. I look to create objects that are strange but familiar, threatening but passive. Much of my work draws on cave environments: their ritual uses, liminality, and self-producing nature. I look to use unconventional materials, employing liquid latex and wax alongside clay and plaster. Recently, I have focused more directly on the exhibition site, making anti-plinth work that adopts the materials of its surroundings. I have been using protective architectural materials like Polyfilla, steel wool, silicone, and insulation to corrupt the boundaries of the white wall and the gallery floor, questioning the stability of the art world itself. I employ stalagmite-like or tentacle-like shapes in my sculpture, looking to draw together the organic and the organic, and to bring a sense of tactility or creepiness to the work. I enjoy playing with the boundary between passivity and threateningness in my semi-alive sculptures, balancing aestheticism with peculiarity. Overall, I strive for strangeness in my work, something that perhaps allows the viewer to see the space or the materials in an unexpected or new way.