Laura Kelly’s recent practice investigates structure and constructed drawing. It has resulted in the making of architectonic structures which reference diverse entities ranging from the man-made, in the form of communication masts and network systems, to the organic in the form of birds’ nests.
Constructed drawing has been described as a kind of three-dimensional representation which debates geometry, order and unity while freeing up drawing as a performative object. It seeks to occupy the flat surface with which drawing is normally associated and to also exist in a spatial mode.
By examining structure both in terms of its formal aspects and in terms of what happens when it becomes uncertain, she is making work which attempts to convey both a sense of the linear and of instability. Formal strategies used by the minimalist artists to impose an order, including the use of repetition and scale, and their active consideration of the space between the floor and ceiling, are of particular interest. In her case however, these strategies are employed in an attempt to create feelings of disorder, precariousness and a lack of robustness.
She employs a range of material in her work including card, paper, bamboo sticks, wire, wood, tape and thread. The materials imply impermanence and suggest a degree of contingency. Colour also plays an important role in the work. For some cultures, the use of pale, indefinite colouration implies disorder and a slide into the chaotic. With the introduction of intense colour into the work, she attempts to introduce another layer of order.
Through the use of a loose formal abstraction and a constructive/ deconstructive sensibility, the work alludes to the absence of a compelling framework or inner coherence while simultaneously referring to ideas of shelter, home and the occupancy of space.