Laura W. McClanahan
Photo/Video Abstractions
Hunterdon County New Jersey

Artists’ Statement

MFA Thesis Exhibition CHAOS PATTERNS

CHAOS PATTERNS is an exploration of the natural systems of water. I am interested in how water as the source of life, transformation and creation relates to patterns of thought in the mind. The repetitious patterns of movement in water create various flow forms, for example, the vortex, wave, meander and sphere. Water creates form, just as our repetitious thoughts form ideas. The flow of ideas leads to the act of creating something in reality.

In a chaotic system in physics, making long-term predictions is impossible. Weather patterns are an example of this natural chaotic motion. Randomness is at the core of all living things yet patterns arise out of chaos. My work explores the chaos within the calm and the calm within the chaos. This work is about new ideas and new possibilities that emerge into physical form from random repetition.

The first step in my system of understanding chaotic patterns in the world is to catalog them using photography and video. With the photographs I cut out the patterns like scientific specimens. In my videos, I edit to enhance and exaggerate the flow forms. The video work shows a direct relationship to the cut outs in its accentuation of the water’s forms created by the patterns of movement. One medium informs the other throughout each new generation.

All of my work together results in a cacophony of movement and sound. It is organized chaos, a fluctuation between a conversation and a meditation. Each cut out is part of a water form that acts as a single thought. The repetition of these thoughts creates an idea. All of the panels and videos together create a conversation that unites, separates and analyzes each idea.



PHOTO CELLS

Born out of resisting perfection, each PHOTO CELL is unique. The process is random and slightly unpredictable. Working in the dark, my characters are set off place. With a flash of light, they come to life floating in a color field of water or blood. Something submerged, suspended, a primitive cellular organism or something internal, biological and genetic.

I am looking for origins and the source of life. I am questioning what makes something alive. In my own style of scientific investigation, I invite the viewer into a constructed world. Glass objects become subjects. Invisible micro details become visible. Transparency transforms into an ambiguous mark.

With some, I photograph the glass back on top of the completed photogram. This reveals the artifice of the imaginary world and brings the work back to reality. This is important as I question the line between existence and death.