September 8–October 28, 2023
Les Enluminures
New York, NY
Curated by Tomas Borchert
Selected work from Blank Stare is included in Paint to Print: New Paradigms in Medieval Art, a group exhibition that explores an important episode in the history of medieval art, namely the production and diffusion of high-quality printed works of art. Although often taken for granted today, the introduction of efficiently replicated images in Germany in the 1430s represents a significant paradigm shift. We have been fortunate to gather a range of rare material for this occasion. The objects exhibited allow us to explore the cross-fertilization of painting and print. This group exhibition, curated by Tomas Borchert, helps to construct a more complete picture of the tightly knit relationships between workshops and the hybrid nature of the medieval visual landscape. Part of an ongoing effort to understand medieval art in a larger art historical context, the exhibition will present these works alongside modern and contemporary works that significantly contribute to the conversation on prints, originality, and mechanical reproduction.
Selected work from Blank Stare is included in Paint to Print: New Paradigms in Medieval Art, a group exhibition that explores an important episode in the history of medieval art, namely the production and diffusion of high-quality printed works of art. Although often taken for granted today, the introduction of efficiently replicated images in Germany in the 1430s represents a significant paradigm shift. We have been fortunate to gather a range of rare material for this occasion. The objects exhibited allow us to explore the cross-fertilization of painting and print. This group exhibition, curated by Tomas Borchert, helps to construct a more complete picture of the tightly knit relationships between workshops and the hybrid nature of the medieval visual landscape. Part of an ongoing effort to understand medieval art in a larger art historical context, the exhibition will present these works alongside modern and contemporary works that significantly contribute to the conversation on prints, originality, and mechanical reproduction.
Laura Splan will exhibit a selection from her Blank Stare (2016) series of laser etchings on paper in the upcoming group exhibition, Paint to Print: New Paradigms in Medieval Art, at Les Enluminures (New York, NY). Curated by Tomas Borchert, the exhibition examines the enduring impact of the mechanical printing press and mass-produced images on medieval visual art and beyond. Paint to Print reveals the mutual influence between painting and printmaking in the medieval age, and further contextualizes these historical examples among modern and contemporary artworks that continue to redefine the boundaries of the medium, representing significant contributions to the dialogue around originality, multiples, and the possibilities of mechanical reproduction.
The laser-etched prints that comprise Laura Splan’s Blank Stare series act as poetic embodiments, translating the mind’s fluctuation between concentration and distraction into pattern and form. To begin each work, Splan wore an EEG (electroencephalogram) sensor to monitor her brain activity while staring at the blank sheets of paper for a duration of sixty seconds. Using custom software, the artist visualized the data captured from the sensor as a waveform. The undulations of the irregular lines reflect stretches of intense focus broken by dips in attention caused by environmental distractions or errant thoughts. Using a computer-programmed laser-etching process, Splan singed the waveform directly and repeatedly into the paper’s surface, forming a hypnotic, radial pattern that pulls the viewer’s gaze towards the center of each etching. Mechanical reproduction allows for a precise representation of the biometric data, deliberately arranged to produce rippling, optically illusionistic patterns suggesting depth and movement. The etched lines appear golden ochre towards the periphery of the mandala-like, circular forms where there is more negative space, and deepen to a dark sepia in areas where the marks and recorded attention-span become more concentrated, doubling down on the metaphorically searing power of the gaze. The resulting prints function as abstract self-portraits, playfully exploring the relatably daunting experience of confronting a blank page, while revealing the undulating rhythms and hidden workings of the human mind.
Splan’s work invokes several distinct art historical movements of the 20th century, synthesizing concerns drawn from op art, minimalism, and computational art, particularly the work of pioneering artists Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnar, who each independently began using computers within their practices in the late 1960s. Operating foremost from a position of curiosity, Splan regularly seeks out materials and working methods that are steeped in rigid procedures and specific applications, precisely to interrogate and subvert the rules and categorical associations they are typically governed by. As technology becomes increasingly advanced and pervasive, Splan’s explorations reflect on the often invisible ways in which our lived experiences are increasingly mediated by screens, sensors, and algorithms. Embracing the computer not simply as a tool but as an autonomous collaborator, her work like that of Molnar and Mohr considers the creative potential of computation, and the capacity for logic-based processes to yield unexpected aesthetic results.
— Text by Renee Delosh
Project support provided by IMRC at The University of Maine Department of New Media, SIM Residency, ACRE Residency
Special thanks to Sean Michael Taylor and Gene A. Felice II
