Laura Aldridge (b. 1978) graduated with an MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2006 ,spending a period of exchange at CALARTS, Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include: THINGS HELD INSIDE//THE NEW SEA, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow, LAxLA, Milagro Alegro Community Gardens, Los Angeles, 2012; Underside, backside, inside, even, CCA, Glasgow, 2012; Cairn, Pittenweem, Fife, 2011; Studio Voltaire, London, 2011 and Cats are not important, Transmission Gallery,Glasgow. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions at Venues including White Columns, New York, Shane Campbell, Chicago and Supplement, London.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. I am an artist and I currently live and work in Glasgow. I work with all kinds of materials from photography, screen print, ceramics, fabric, cement. I also work as part of a collaborative group called Poster Club. We meet to make and design posters, treating printmaking as a site for experimental collaborative practice.
How has living in Glasgow affected your art practice? Glasgow is a great for making work. It’s cheap to live here and there is an amazing support system for artists in the form of funding, artist run galleries, project spaces, other artists––it means being in the studio and making progress with your practice is a reality. There are also several great public access workshops, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow Print Studio, MAKLab at the lighthouse––they all make fabricating your own work possible. It rains a lot in Glasgow too, so I get a lot done!
Who is your ideal studiomate? Easy, my plants.
If you were a drink what drink would you be? A big cup of bubble tea, probably mango flavored.
How did your interest in art begin? With my sister––as children we would make our own books, magazines, perfume, pottery and toys.
What artists are you interested in right now? Sister Corita, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Hayley Tompkins, Alexandra Birckin, Cosima Von Bonnin, Ree Morton to name but a few…
Tell us about your work process and how it develops? I have a predominantly studio based practice––I work with materials, thoughts and feelings to develop works, trying to draw out relationships between these things as I recognize them in external sources and processes of making.?There is always a push and pull for me between clarity, realization and material. I tend to gather, and look and gather and look, then filter, then add things, take away things, move things about––the work often has an air of lightness––this is important––but its hard fought, and works can take many months before they become something.
How long have you lived in Glasgow and what brought you there? I moved here to study at The Glasgow School of Art in 2004. I’ve remained in Glasgow since, with a few breaks here and there––I lived in Amsterdam for 6 months in 2009, and try and spend time in Los Angeles after doing an exchange at CalArts whilst on the MFA in Glasgow.
What are you reading right now? So the wind won’t blow it all away by Richard Brautigan.
Any current or upcoming shows we should know about? I am working towards a collaborative project with Los Angeles based artist Anna Mayer called Openaries, it’s for Glasgow International Festival of Visual art (GI) here in Glasgow next year. I also have a solo show at Tramway, Glasgow in 2014––Tramway is one of the biggest gallery spaces in Europe, I think…it’s enormous. It’s fast approaching and both an extremely exciting and daunting opportunity.
Describe your current studio or workspace. I work out of a studio building called Grey Wolf Studios which I run with my good friend and fellow artist Nick Evans. We have around 15 artists here, all making and doing, so its a good place to be. My own studio, it’s a mess! I’m in the middle of making work for a show at Supplement Gallery, London, so after weeks of frenetic activity, there are bits of fabric strewn all over the place, clay everywhere and concrete dripping from the ceiling––I’m a messy maker.
