BOWNESS-ON-WINDERMERE.- Laura works primarily with willow and other coppiced materials, to create magnificent sculptural pieces. In this instance, inspired in direct response to this unique house in the beautiful Lakeland setting, Laura has worked on site at Blackwell over two weeks, through the changing elements to create two dramatic curvaceous structures, one bonded to the house and the other to a retaining wall of the garden terrace overlooking Lake Winderemere.

Laura’s work is site-specific and ecologically sound; she creates large scale ‘morphing’ nestlike structures. She has, in her own words, ‘an intuitive response to the tactile possibilities of certain materials’ and her work focuses upon ‘the material, the environment of a site and a slightly ‘architectural’ sense of making’. Visitors have been able to see Laura at work and share their responses with her. A film, commissioned to capture the creation of Exposed at Blackwell is now complete and available here

Laura said, "My large-scale installations are almost always built on site, allowing me to form the works in a way that truly fits its location. I began making my early works upon dry stone walls and evolved to work within trees, riverbanks and hedges, allowing the chosen structure (be it organic or man-made) to become host. Over a decade into my work, my passions have returned to not only merging with dry stone walls, but to the powerful connections with architecture. My work has to fuse with a building to succeed, both aesthetically and practically. The forms I make have such a closeness with the fabric of the building, their oozing energy spills from gutters, their 'muscular' forms nuzzle up to the glass and their gripping weave locks onto the strength of the walls. Whilst the scale and impact varies from striking to subtle (sometimes only visible upon a quizzical double take), I have relished the opportunity to let the building 'feed' the form, as if some part of the building is exhaling into the work."