Laura C. Hewitt's Personal Statement

I read a lot of critical theory and contemporary philosophy, virtually anything from off beat writers that just avoid sinking into the quagmire of paranoid conspiracy theory, to the academically validated venues of Jacques Derrida, Avital Ronell and Gilles Deleuze. I've found various theoretical works to be highly useful tools in my art practice. I'm particularly interested in recombining or intersecting visual images, materials or concepts that are generally presented as dichotomous such as natural/technological, male/female, art/craft, personal/public, old/new, real/simulacra. I like to challenge the status quo of popular perception, not as a critical negation, but as a potentially ironic rethinking.

Idealistic metaphysical concepts like Beauty and Truth annoy me. I am not interested in universal myths or research into the cause of things. The inspiration and raw material for the practical application of critical theory derives primarily from my personal life experiences. The frustration of a mechanical difficulty, the title of a song, the tedium of domestic chores, a miscommunication with my dentist, a midnight snowmachine ride, an email conversation, just about anything can inspire a series of work. Sometimes I relate a theory to a life experience, sometimes it's the other way around and sometimes I've been obsessing about an aspect of a theory for so long that I find it everywhere no matter how impossibly unrelated it initially seems. Often the challenge is to find the way to get diverse materials and ideas to work together.

The charm of visual art to me, and the charm of its practice, is its chaos, impracticability, irrationality, rebelliousness, messiness and flux. I never know where my recipe for art:

* have a life experience
* add a cup of theory
* sprinkle irony on top

might take me, but I am always looking forward to the journey.