15 Questions with... Lauren Bryden
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick-fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Lauren Bryden is a painter and printmaker working in Glasgow. She studied Textile Design at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2010 with a BA (Hons). In the last sixteen years, she has worked across printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and painting, developing a distinct multi-disciplinary practice. Her work is preoccupied with beauty/decay and growth/loss in both the matrescence and plant life cycles, studying the reflections between the two and offering a system by which to explore and understand the maternal experience.
Bryden recently participated in a group exhibition entitled Salon at the Paul Stolper Gallery in London, alongside artists including Susannah Baker-Smith, Helen Beard and Susie Hamilton. The exhibition spans a period of almost thirty years, focusing on paintings, prints, needlework, and sculptures, and remains on view through 14 August.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I suppose my earliest memory of a work of art would probably be illustrations in children's books. Mairi Hedderwick's watercolour paintings in the Katie Morag series are particularly evocative and really captured my imagination as a young child. There is a particular painting of Katie's mother nursing a baby, which I remember being fascinated by. I was very lucky to meet Mairi this year, and she told me she had a fight with the publishers to keep this illustration in!
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
I'm not sure I necessarily go out looking for inspiration, but making mistakes is a fantastic way to find inspiration, and luckily, a huge part of being an artist.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Go on walks, listen to podcasts and get sucked back into domestic life.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
Choosing one is difficult because I have so many disparate influences, from Alice Neel to the Wiener Werkstatte, Hilma af Klint or Edvard Munch...
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Making boring art!
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
I would say the place that's easiest for you to get to is probably the best. In Glasgow, there is currently a slow erosion in the city of civic and cultural spaces, and it's important that we continue to use what we still have. My favourite museum in Glasgow is probably the Hunterian, although I would love to visit the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Privilege.
8. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
Unfortunately, not a trend, but a lot of men's depictions of women in contemporary art are generally a bit of an eye roll.
9. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
Larry Levan, Grass Widow, Cleo Sol.
10. What's your favourite colour and why?
I'm often drawn to the bright orangey hue of cadmium red; it's my favourite shade of red in art and life.
11. What three items would you grab if your house was burning down?
Probably my phone, photographs and other people's art.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at?
I am always attempting to loosen up my painting and find ways to bring more expression into mark making; it's one of the reasons I love printmaking because the process can really enable a more loose, immediate way of working.
13. What can you tell us about your work inalon, which is currently on view at Paul Stolper Gallery?
My works in Salon are from a small series called 'Ways of Dreaming'. The prints and paintings evolved from drawings made during the summer, and as they started to take shape through autumn, I took inspiration from Beira, also known as the Queen of Winter, who is said to have created the ragged Scottish mountains and lochs with her magic staff. She rules until springtime when she succumbs as the earth begins to bloom again. The works move between figures devoured by the landscape and those wielding their power through it, but across the series, it’s unclear which is dominant: those with power or those devoured.
14. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
It’s always a thrill to hear what people take away from my work. I love hearing people's impressions. I’m open to all of it.
15. What else are you working on at the moment?
Since the start of this year, I have been working on expanding my woodcut skills, and I’m currently editioning a series of reduction woodcut prints. I've been really enjoying the way in which the process and the wood give you something to work against, and the concise way the medium allows you to communicate an image.
