Lauren Clay
Statement, 2025
My sculptures and installations evoke the ethereal architecture of dreams, transforming the intangible imagery of the personal and collective unconscious into ornate, visceral realities.
Through low-relief architectural carvings and hand-painted marble surfaces, my wall-based sculptures compress and distort space. Stairs, doorways, windows, and energetic pathways intertwine—passageways that beckon yet remain elusive. At this hypnagogic gateway, viewers are invited into the indeterminate theater of the dream world.
I am deeply fascinated by the concept of "place"—the energy and atmosphere inherent in architectural sites, both ancient and modern, as well as the psychological resonance embedded within them. Much like the Biblical story of Jacob’s ladder, my work bridges the physical and the supernatural, offering a threshold between the known and the mysterious. Dreams, with their juxtaposition of the ordinary and the strange, inspire this threshold experience. Stairs, doorways, and windows—symbols of transition and transformation throughout art history—are central motifs in my practice, embodying both the tangible and the transcendent.
The sculptures are meticulously crafted using high-density urethane, a material chosen for its stability and versatility. Hand-carving with traditional wood-carving tools, I create intricate surfaces that are sanded, finished, and painted with oil paint to simulate faux-marble, woodgrain, and create enhanced shadows and gradients. These textures enhance the illusionistic qualities of the work, bridging the gap between materiality and the ethereal.
Often, the sculptures are exhibited within immersive, mural-sized wallpaper installations that engage and transform the gallery’s existing architecture. The wallpaper reinforces the formal devices of the sculptures while further distorting space, layering illusion upon illusion.
The imagery for the wallpaper installations is created by constructing miniature panoramic collages of handmade marbled paper, which I make using traditional paper-marbling methods in my studio. The collages are created based on the exact site-specific dimensions of the gallery, then digitally scanned. The imagery is then printed onto vinyl using a large-format photo printer in my studio. All of the physical details from the original miniature collage are retained in the enlarged print, creating an illusionistic wallcovering that has a trompe-l’oeil effect, adding an additional layer of implied physicality.
My personal dreams are a recurring source of inspiration. In them, I’m often led into hidden rooms, through unexpected doorways, and encounter enigmatic figures or animals—symbols of the unconscious and the "numinous," as described by Carl Jung. These visions guide my exploration of architecture and psyche, as I seek to capture the elusive spirit of place and the hidden dimensions of our inner worlds. My work endeavors to illuminate the liminal spaces of spiritual pursuit, where the physical and metaphysical converge.