Two Steps, Twice
Laura’s project Products of My Environment is based on her interest in her local urban waste and plant dyes. In the gallery, she uses broken garden parasols that were destined for the dump and second-hand fabrics that are dyed using home-grown organic flowers as well as food vestiges from her local cafés. The parasols and naturally dyed cotton create the walls of a playful space for education, alternative to the typical classroom. They perform the function of soft structures, reminiscent of the forts of teenhood. These materials are easy to repair and change, yet also easy to break and be discarded. Audience participants are invited inside to see some of the principles of permaculture put into action and take home a D.I.Y natural dye guide. Laura’s favourite permaculture principle is ‘Use Edges and Value the Marginal’, and she is also interested in how we take stock of our assets that are not limited to money. She searches for ways to be present with the Earth and the inner world. Naturally dyed fibres are the conduit between these worlds. In her urban garden, Laura has organically grown flowers to make her natural dyes. Cultivating colour in this way involves months of planning and care. This slow stewardship directly opposes the pressure that consumerism has put on the earth’s resources. The delicate flowers’ vibrant lifeforce is captured in cotton, until they fade and decay, and cycle back into the earth again.
Products of My Environment, The Lab Gallery Dublin, 2023. Three repaired garden parasols (approx. 240 centimetres high on a wooden base 50 cm wide with umbrellas of variable dimensions), sandbags, cotton rope, second-hand cotton bedsheets dyed with organically grown flowers and food waste (avocado, coffee and pomegranate), wooden pallet, film photographs, 3 x glass jars of avocado, coffee and pomegranate dyes, 3x glass jars of avocado skins and seeds, coffee grounds, pomegranate skins, jar with homegrown dried flowers. DIY natural dye handout free to take. Dimensions variable.
The title Two Steps, Twice conjures a sense of movement or progression. But it also implies looking back and reflection. Steps describe a familiar way of moving in space and time, most obviously in the form of walking. But steps can take other forms in artistic processes. An artist rarely just progresses forward, continuously creating in a constant stream. Every now and then they must take a step backwards to retrace their own artistic pathway, revisit old projects, theories, or methodologies to step forward with their current project. Sometimes, they even step sideways, pivoting in a totally different direction from that envisioned at the start of a project, to explore a new and exciting direction. The artworks in Two Steps, Twice are a reminder that thought-provoking work doesn’t always happen on a linear path, it is a combination of forward, reflective and flexible stepping.
The LAB gallery can be a place from which to view everyday reality differently, by finding new routes and pathways inwards, or by stepping outwards towards the street, the urban world beyond, and even the wider realm of the earth itself. A growing planetary consciousness has inspired many individuals to take steps towards sustainability and artists are no exception. Materials and objects undergo many stages or steps in their lifetime, through processes of construction, manipulation, production and display. Artists often seek out new uses for discarded objects or deliberately choose materials that may, in time, degrade and return to the earth. These motivations are evident throughout Two Steps, Twice, in artworks that activate the walls, floor, ceiling, and windows of the LAB Gallery. This exhibition is an invitation to step into an active process and to join these artists in their ongoing choreography of experimentation, invention and reflection.
Two Steps, Twice on Vimeo
Exhibition text by ARC-LAB Gallery Curatorial Scholar Clara McSweeney and Maeve Connolly.
