Laura Boles Faw

For the exhibition Gum Heads, Laura Boles Faw uses images and sculpture to collapse periods of historical influence on cultural desire. Images of Roman busts are made whole again with the prosthetic addition of chewing gum noses, a sort of transference from one body to another. A sculptural collage precariously balances aspirations for fine domestic furniture with crumbling classical ideals, embodying a search for meaning within and against multiple influences. An etched glass work abstracts and isolates the serpent that entangles Laocoön and his sons in order to elicit in the viewer’s desiring-imagination the human forms of the original sculptural tableau. In the round, the works speak to the certainty that the history of sculpture and objects is a flawed enterprise, and that it is only possible to create any form of understanding by interacting with its historical forms.

Organized by Cathy Fairbanks