Lauren Davies Projects

Over the past twenty years, photographic imagery has become integral to my practice that both literally and conceptually weaves together textiles, sculpture and photography to explore American history, economic decline and environmental concerns. This has led to a wide range of photo-based mixed media works such as printed images of stains from a linen map of colonial Africa; DIY natural history dioramas paired with photographs sourced from instructional taxidermy manuals; and deconstructed photo-based textile works that visually investigates the Rust Belt’s industrial decline through its abandoned architecture and the disused landscape.

A recent project focused on the isolation of incarceration through hand-dyed and collaged imagery of abandoned objects photographed at a condemned prison in Ohio. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I am now photographing vintage needlepoint nature scenes and re-working the imagery that humorously calls the quaint and cozy “Cottage Core” sensibility into question.

Across these various projects, I continue to present narratives of personal, cultural, and institutional histories, shaped by material experimentation and a focus on the darker undercurrents of contemporary life and its economic origins.