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Laura Baker
Yours to an ash | 2024
Yours to an ash. @ Kandos Museum
Drawing from a personal family connection to the town, the artist has gathered a selection of letters connected to the place of Kandos. These handwritten histories have been donated by the community and collected from the Kandos Museum, before being intricately cut by hand and re-placed throughout the town. Words now wrap around trees, lines of text on the inside of a bus shelter, sentiment in ordinary places. A treasure hunt of personal stories.
bio:
Laura Baker is an Australian visual artist working in the medium of paper cutting. Laura was born in the Central West region of NSW and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts (now UNSW Art & Design). Laura spent several years living in Sydney and Melbourne whilst working in the independent book industry, before completing post-graduate studies in Arts & Cultural Management. She now lives in her hometown of Blayney NSW. Laura is currently exhibited in the Arts OutWest exhibition While the World Waits (2022-2024). Recent exhibitions include Artists in Volatile Landscapes at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (2023), Watch your step at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (2023), Corrugated Town at Brunswick Street Gallery (2022), and Ghost Gums at LEDA Gallery (2022).
statement:
Starting with unmarked paper, Laura uses surgical cuts to explore the qualities, detail, and shape of the Australian landscape. Forms appear from the negative space as images are ‘drawn’ with the blade. A tension exists between the pull of metal through paper and the delicate strands left behind. The final pieces are as much about the paper imagery, as the emptiness and the faint shadows cast beyond the work. Through a reflective and laborious practice, fragile lace-like representations explore the lived experience of regional and rural communities, along with our greater ongoing tension with the environment. Despite this, the work remains hopeful with a sense of nostalgia, acceptance and appreciation of place.
Kandos Museum
The artist acknowledges the contribution of Colleen O’Sullivan and the Kandos Museum to the development of “Yours to an ash”.
