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    • Laura Hayley
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Laura Condren

Laura Condren is a Sydney based National Art School alumni whose practice spans ceramics, soft sculpture, painting and beyond. She explores both the physical and psychological experience of womanhood working with organic forms that mimic flesh and skin.

Artists Statement
​The Earthbleed series details the exploration of trauma on the female psyche and its relation to changing landscape. This fascination with infertility in the harsh Australian landscape and its colonial lack of understanding connects to my yearning for the innate and deeply spiritual healing mutually experienced by women amid these changing socio-political times.

This series was a direct response to personal unresolved psychological traumas, addiction and loss as well as inspired by my visit to the site of Mount Bell in the Dharug Nation amid this period of healing. The fragmentation of landscapes in the surface texture of the paintings relate to Mount Bell’s desolation due to the 2019 bushfires which seem long forgotten amid the rise of the COVID 19 pandemic and its broadcasting. 

These works focus on a constant process of growth and decay as each layer is submerged in the next, leaving fragments of the previous stories. My work is heavily process based and intuitive as I let my environment and materials dominate the layering process. I feel overstimulated and oversensitive to the current environmental and political climate and use my painting as a tool to decompress and self soothe.
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My process of emotional expulsion onto the canvas as opposed to a preconceived notion of how the piece may end aims to achieve a moment of therapeutic catharsis. The Earthbleed series aims to resemble abstractions of the Australian landscape as well as draw reference to abandoned rural sites and their association to the idea of barrenness.
Instagram:
@condren_sculpts

​A Study in Grieving
Laura Condren
Mixed Media, linen and house paint on Canvas
61x46
Accompanying Poem
​​My womb took its last breath
And by the warmth of the fire
I bled my last life for you

I watched as the naked woman danced 
A reckoning in the embers
And I cast you from this vessel one last time

No longer a void to fill
A heart to warm
Or a home to have

I watched the blood trickle 
And I think of a lifetime
A child and a spoon

What is loss?
Where does it go?

The skeleton in your closet really was me
Your little Death;
And a star fell from heaven when I touched your face

What does it all mean?
To have and to hold
To bleed my last breath

A child of hope I held onto just that little bit longer
In case you felt like calling me home.
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Untitled 2020
Laura Condren
Paperbark, yarn and acrylic on Canvas
110x81
Accompanying Poem
​T̶h̶u̶r̶s̶d̶a̶y̶
Wrapped up in a parcel;
Lobbed into the valley
R̶a̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶u̶n̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶
A̶ ̶p̶o̶n̶c̶h̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶w̶o̶ ̶c̶u̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶̶

T̶o̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶I̶ ̶b̶e̶g̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶
I never would have come here if I knew forever was a year
F̶e̶e̶l̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶r̶;̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶
Alone in myself
​A̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶o̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶a̶d̶
̶T̶h̶u̶r̶s̶d̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶r̶s̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶r̶s̶d̶a̶y̶
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​Untitled 2020​
Laura Condren
Earth, ochre, iron nails, linen, cotton on 
Canvas
77x62
Accompanying Poem
​​Trees burn
The lake whispers shadows
Gravel road proves treacherous
Past begins to unwind
Unravel and shrink
Tiny heart and a cold case of beer beside me

I thought it was longing
Being this near
Instead we are strangers
I hope to never see you sad eyed stranger
The anger
The guilt
Pry the book from my hands
Ask me if what’s yours can no longer be mine-
It can’t.
It can’t.
So leave the mountain
Bleed in the stream.
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​Untitled 2020
Laura Condren
Earth, acrylic, ochre, clay, linen, cotton on Canvas
77x62​
Accompanying Poem
​​And as I rinse away the dreams we made
I scrub the layers of dead skin
Until I’m red and raw
Memories we made;
-Burn to the touch.
I claw at the dust you left
I scratch my skin so pink
That the girl who meets me at the mirror
Finally resembles what lies ahead of rock bottom.
I am clean- This is my morning routine.
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"Earthbleed" 2020​
Laura Condren
Clay, ochre, yarn, house paint, acrylic and bedsheets on Canvas
95x62
Accompanying Poem
​For a time autumn felt like Spring with you
But now as winter peeks through my window each morning
It feels less hopeful 
Like the Spring that never came in a year like 2007,
Where the power went out and we forgot wood for the fire
In that sad long cold I never quite forgave.

I’m not sure I’ll forgive myself for letting you plant sunflowers 
Where you neglected to shower them in your light.
I’m just not ready to let go of the hurting,
The pain.
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We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people who are the Traditional Custodians of this land. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging of the Eora Nation and extend that respect to other Aboriginals present.
Sovereignty was never ceded.
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  • Home
  • Creatrix
    • Bea Buckland-Willis
    • Bronte Nicole-Scott
    • Carina Capone
    • Claire Welch
    • Laura Condren
    • Laura Hayley
  • 2020 Show
  • About
  • Contact