Sugar:: Laura Gipson
awash, 2021
Polyester fiberfill, fabric paint, cedar, wire, screen, paint, wax, polyester fabric.
Cotton candy is sugar in a form that promises innocence and nostalgia. So insubstantial that it melts to the touch and dissolves in humidity. It’s the ephemeral cloud-like quality of cotton candy that attracted my attention. I was interested in turning a wispy and near-weightless object into an oversized overbearing presence. Placed in a quotidian setting that is saturated in pink, the scene implies excess. Sugar today is ubiquitous. It is enticing, it is addictive, and it can seem as if we are awash in it.
Laura Gipson, a native of Maryland, has lived in New Orleans since 1980. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in private and institutional collections. She has been an adjunct instructor at the University of New Orleans in printmaking and currently teaches Talented in Visual Art in the Jefferson Parish School System. She has been a member of the Antenna Collective since 2010.