2003
artist's blood on watercolor paper
12 H × 12 W in (30.48 H × 30.48 W cm) each
Thought Patterns explores the narrative implications of blood through its physical qualities. The drawings reference neuroanatomical forms sometimes directly, sometimes loosely. Renderings of neurons, dendrites, Golgi cells, and other brain structures evoke the complex psychological and physiological responses our body has to outside forces. The forms of the brain structures act as visual metaphors for the extreme complexity and delicate fragility of the human body.
Thought Patterns explores the narrative implications of blood through its physical qualities. The drawings reference neuroanatomical forms sometimes directly, sometimes loosely. Renderings of neurons, dendrites, Golgi cells, and other brain structures evoke the complex psychological and physiological responses our body has to outside forces. The forms of the brain structures act as visual metaphors for the extreme complexity and delicate fragility of the human body.
...Laura Splan disturbs our notions of beauty and femininity by crafting traditionally feminine objects out of unpredictable materials. By using the body as material for textile-based craft, historically thought of as women’s work, Splan shifts the conversation about her work in a way that hearkens back to Miriam Schapiro’s femmage pieces. But in its nearly painful intimacy with the body, Splan’s work has a fresh and universal application: all viewers have their own bodies to contemplate...
..Splan balances corporeal and incorporeal, wondrous and weird...Splan’s show gives several new meanings to the phrase “anatomically correct”; the implants correct our own malfunctioning parts, and she corrects the implants with her own anatomy. But her show at the all-female, all-the-time Femina Potens Gallery also corrects another anatomical issue: the overwhelming XY factor of the art world, where strong solo shows by women artists such as this one are too often presented only during Women’s History Month...
