Artworks

“Hollow Habits, for Liz” – the first gay I ever knew, 2020

Glazed stoneware, dyed monkscloth used as shipping blankets for the work in this show, previously used as table cloths and as picnic ground covering, grass stains, candle drippings, spilled wine, and dog piss
16 x 16 x 17 1/2 in. (40.64 x 40.64 x 44.45 cm)

© Jeremy Laing, courtesy of the artist

Three of these works are on view in the exhibition, structured yet soft, and each hiding an opening or orifice. With a nod to the sculptural works of Liz Magor (b. 1948), Laing pulls together seemingly unrelated objects from his studio in order to create a type of readymade that celebrates each somewhat opposing component. The work is both soft and hard, full and void. The vessel holds literal space while the blankets envelope the vessel revealing only the empty opening. Each component is simply fulfilling a role it was created for. In the words of the artist:

The tent wall is a tapestry, is a blanket, is a carpet, is folded up under your bed, is draped over your couch, is hung on the wall; I’m fascinated by all the ways a textile transforms as an object while remaining itself through all of its iterations. It is always either in transition or laying in wait for its next one. It has different appearances and different performances based on context, on audience and place. It is most itself when it is allowed its many forms.