Imaginary Suburbia merges mundane suburban landscapes with unconscious, spontaneous imagery, reimaging distinctive suburban landscapes into magical realms. Favouring the use of misplaced animals and fruit in combination with mass-produced suburban scenes and infrastructure, I invite playful, nostalgic readings as well as contemplation of our fractured contemporary world- overrun by technology, social and environmental instability. I engage with traditional oil painting practices that assist in bringing these imaginary suburban scenes alive, enabling me to unlock unconscious thought as well as embrace the uncanny assemblages that form, sitting in a space between familiar and unfamiliar. My practice aims to foster personal reflection and challenge perceptions of the mundane world in the context of the widespread disconnect experienced by our population and the natural world around us.
Lauren Smith is an artist born and raised in the south-eastern suburbs of Naarm/Melbourne. Her works utilise an array of painting and drawing techniques, specifically engaging with oil, watercolour and coloured pencil. Her practice primarily engages with magical realism and surrealism from a female lens, the mundane and personal encounter, and how unconscious thinking processes can ultimately transform our depictions of the world. She particularly enjoys the painting process as it enables her to bridge her own internalised, impulsive thoughts with outer suburban landscapes, creating vivid, animated scenes of the terrain around us.
https://www.laurensmithartt.com/