Laura Wright

Laura C. Wright received her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA in fiber arts from the Univeristy of Washington. She completed a second MFA from the University of California Santa Cruz’s Digital Arts and New Media program. She investigates the methods and politics of communication through visual and interactive processes. Laura’s work addresses social and political factors that divide people and suppress their voice while exploring visual language and forms for alternative means of communication.

Laura received 2015 GAP Award funding for “Neogeography: Invasive Species,” as part of her ongoing investigation into mapping invisible histories by creating site-specific works that bring awareness to the stories and injustices in our landscape. The funds will provide for the purchase of a digital SLR camera and monopod to help document her process and the final installation of this project. She will also use the documentation for a website, to create a gallery installation, and for final publication.

Laura received 2009 GAP Award funding for the research and production of an installation piece that uses simple applications of light and sound to emulate a summer night in Ohio. She will begin her research there, recording the sounds of the native fireflies. Laura is fascinated by the presence of thousands of insects communicating to each other during a typical summer Ohio night, including most memorably the lightning bug or firefly, which emits a soft pulsating light to signal to its own kind. Using simple technology in the form of the shadow lantern, she plans on creating a forest of fireflies.

Laura received 2005 GAP Award funding to help cover her own time and hire a metal fabricator to construct five flag poles for her project Fabrication. Fabrication is meant to celebrate the individuals that populate the neighborhood of Georgetown, as well as the impromptu meeting places within the community. Residents, workers, and frequent patrons to the neighborhood were asked to submit a piece of clothing to contribute to the artist-made flags. She then posted the flags at key community sites around the neighborhood. Lacking a traditional community center, the flags represent the places where people have chosen to congregate. This GAP Award was directly funded by Artspace Seattle.