Laura Hudspith’s interdisciplinary work reflects an ongoing rumination into the relationship between chronic illness and feminist action. With a focus in autotheoretical methodologies, her work positions practice, performance, and product as indistinguishable elements that are equally personal and political in nature. Casting and capturing pieces of herself in poetic texts, sculpture and lens-based work, Hudspith enacts rituals of self-imposed objectification where the asomatous is somatically shed and agency reclaimed. Object and image compose self-referential installations, the same body castings, objects and textiles commingling as physical sculptures and photographic props.
As part of an expanding body of work first begun in 2019 titled Illness and Objecthood, Skin Suit (2020) spans performance, image, sculpture and text. A series of eleven photographs document a private performance where the artist creates upon herself and emerges from a temporary silicone dermis, leaving the skin behind. With an interest in holistic medicine–the merging of ancient healing practices with western therapies–Skin Suit is a ritual shedding that explores the sick body subject-object dichotomy and the possibilities of psychosomatic remedy.
Hudspith holds a BFA with distinction from Concordia University (Montreal), and was the recipient of the Irene F. Whittome Prize in Studio Arts. She has exhibited her work and participated in residencies in both Canada and the United States, notably with solo exhibitions at This Month Only, and Project Gallery, Toronto; and such residencies as the James Black Gallery, Vancouver; Wreck City, Calgary; and the Red Lodge Clay Center, Montana. She has received recognition from several Canadian granting bodies including the Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council, and has been presented with a Visual Arts Mississauga Jurors’ Award for her work ‘Body Double’, during the artist’s first museum show at the Art Gallery of Mississauga in 2020.
Hudspith is currently pursuing her MFA at Carnegie Mellon University through 2023, and has recently been awarded an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for the production of her graduate work and research (2020).
The artist would like to acknowledge the generous production support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council.
LEFT Contemporary 