Laura Parker

Laura Parker finds a whole other universe just below, or better stated, just underneath, the every day objects of pots and pans. Laura could be considered a Blue-Ribbon California photographer, having received her BFA from UCLA, and MFA from the California Insititue of the Arts, and she continues to teach and produce work in the big Avocado. Represented by the DNJ Gallery in Los Angeles, Laura states: With or without a camera, (sometimes the camera initiates, sometimes the camera just crops,) my mind is constantly trying on a poetics of objects; looking for that slippage, the thing that is there and the thing that is invented. But to arrive at a "composition," a final putting-together, be it elegant, humorous or maybe a bit baffling is to attain a goal (albeit a goal that is short-lived, always in need of renewal!) When an object becomes both itself and a receptacle for an abstract projection there is poetry; a reorientation to the act of everyday looking. Odd associations, dumb detours of logic, why not?

Pot bottoms and Naked Eye Objects were created from 2004-2008 and when combined, create a typology of planets, stars, and orbits that are changed by fire, food, and most probably, a Brillo pad. Discovering this evidence of created hidden galaxies, that rarely gets a second glance or a thorough cleaning, is indeed, a bit magical.

In this spirit, my series "Pot bottoms" and "Naked Eye Objects," 2004-08, present the bottoms of pots and pans, revealing the changes that occur imperceptibly, and over time, on the undersides of these cooking utensils. Thrown into detailed focus is the daily contact between metals, fire and a variety of foods and products. The final photographs, showing different sized "discs" floating in black, either metallic or boldly colored, are 'abstractions' and yet, still pots, shifted to another scale. That these can be compared to planets, individual and clustered, (but will land you back in the kitchen!), and otherwise range from the "optical" to seemingly "archaeological" activates the surprise of seeing simultaneously 'straight' and metaphorically, seeing 'the thing itself' and 'the thing as other.'