| I create installations and environments, which imitate the natural world. My interest lies in the artifice that results from this mimicry. We desire wilderness and unspoilt nature that is not beyond our control, yet this is a contradiction. The work investigates the antagonism this creates. On first encounter, the skeletal creatures and plants that inhabit the installations resemble a museum display. Miniature components assemble to create room-sized environments. Scale is used as a tool to disorientate the viewer. On closer inspection these inhabitants pose many difficulties; they defy the classification into which we want to place most living things. |  |
Laura Youngson Coll
I create installations and environments, which imitate the natural world. My interest lies in the artifice that results from this mimicry. We desire wilderness and unspoilt nature that is not beyond our control, yet this is a contradiction. The work investigates the antagonism this creates.
On first encounter, the skeletal creatures and plants that inhabit the installations resemble a museum display. Miniature components assemble to create room-sized environments. Scale is used as a tool to disorientate the viewer. On closer inspection these inhabitants pose many difficulties; they defy the classification into which we want to place most living things.
These ambiguities in the work could lead to the purely fantastical; they are intended to confuse but leave sufficient reference to the familiar to disarm. The strange surfaces of doppelganger and Crystal World refer not to bones but to folklore and science fiction, referencing time-honored ways of explaining and understanding our influence on the natural world.
These “ecosystems” appear as a parody of animate life. The word animal is derived from the Latin “anima,” meaning soul. These environments seem devoid of anima, yet we find beauty in their sterility. The work is designed to question our willingness to accept the superficial, and evoke the fine line between the beautiful and the macabre.
My own desire to investigate and recreate is echoed throughout humanity in our tendency to want to control the world around us. The work alludes to manifestations of this from early exploration and collecting of new species, to present-day genetic engineering. Contemporary plant morphology is explored beside museology and the ancient craft of Ikebana. A narrative evolves: a human history of attempts to control and recreate nature. Thus, from sourcing a typically human means of investigation, the work is designed to question what we take for granted, and create an intrigue that perpetuates this curiosity.
