Technician’s / Studio Karma Graduate Award
My practice is informed by research and concept and is constantly evolving as I lean into different modes of making, depending on my project. Currently, I am working with sculpture, installation, and print media to expand my exploration of my current research topic, John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory.
I am interested in processes, materiality and bodies and how these things interact within the social constructs of gendered roles, values and labour as well as the spaces where people, objects, subjectivity and non-human forms of subjectivity meet.
Untitled (variations on attachment) is an inquiry into the dynamic mother and child relationship through the lens of Attachment Theory. Attachment Theory was developed by British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby in the 1950’s and was later expanded upon by American-Canadian psychiatrist Mary Ainsworth. It is a theory that continues to evolve and has been taken up by many others in the field.
Attachment Theory focuses on the emotional and physical availability and responsiveness of the mother (caregiver as the secure base) toward the child, the theory argues that the first attachment impacts childhood and later adult relationships. The ‘circle of security’ is a model of intervention or visual map that was developed alongside Attachment Theory by Bowlby to help in creating a secure attachment between infant and caregiver.
Untitled (variations on attachment) uses materials to explore and describe the ‘circle of security’ and is made up of the following categories; ‘ Protect me’: Bronze and leather gloves sculpture, ‘ Comfort me ’: Soft sculpture, ‘Delight in me’: Food sculpture (Turkish delight), ‘Organise my feelings’: Blocks sculpture, ‘Welcome my coming to you’: Domes, Light Sculpture, ‘Watch over me’: Light Stand sculpture and a series of prints.
instagram.com/laurenjohnstoninsta
