2003
blood on wallpaper samples
14 H × 11 W in each
In Wallpaper/Samples, the painting in blood carefully follows the patterns and designs on actual wallpaper samples. The pleasant and familiar patterns of the wallpaper are in opposition to the visceral and unsettling medium with which they are outlined. Each artwork is titled with the name or brand of the wallpaper pattern printed on the back of the wallpaper sample. The titles and brand names leverage language and aesthetics of imperialism and colonialism with words like "Neoclassical Interpretation", "Florette Damask", "Bone", and "Imperial Wallcoverings".
In Wallpaper/Samples, the painting in blood carefully follows the patterns and designs on actual wallpaper samples. The pleasant and familiar patterns of the wallpaper are in opposition to the visceral and unsettling medium with which they are outlined. Each artwork is titled with the name or brand of the wallpaper pattern printed on the back of the wallpaper sample. The titles and brand names leverage language and aesthetics of imperialism and colonialism with words like "Neoclassical Interpretation", "Florette Damask", "Bone", and "Imperial Wallcoverings".
...Laura Splan transforms our human temporality into both comforting and unsettling art. It’s magical, heart-stopping...
...Such is the nature of Splan’s work though, with its willingness to explore what happens when you combine the familiar or domestic with the less comfortable realities of the human body and medical biology...although it would be easy to focus on the shock-value of Splan’s work...there’s something far more revealing about having to re-think an image after its process is shown to lie a little closer to the bone than we’re comfortable with...”
Exhibitions: Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Gallery Aferro
Collections: Berkeley Art Museum
