Pricked: Extreme Embroidery

…The body, in all of its manifestations as surface, structure, and content, is zealously explored by Laura Splan. Splan's approach to depictions of the body is to fragment it into manageable portions, thus allowing for a much deeper investigation into the ways in which corporeal, spiritual, and emotional imperatives intersect and inform each other. The artist uses the elements of the body – skin, blood, bones, organs, and even human viruses – to "explore perceptions of beauty and horror, comfort and discomfort.” The imagery that she chooses can be abstract, like patchwork assemblages using cosmetic skin peels, to more literal references, such as vein patterns. Within this framework, Splan is highly focused on the materiality of her subject and her medium, and on the processes that they may inspire; she speaks of her pleasure, for example, in discovering that "the consistency of blood facilitates its use as ink."…