Issue 5 - Laura Greenway

 Could you explain your practice? Only you know why you do what you do?

My practice is based around my own experiences of severe mental illness and disability and focuses heavily on my body as a medium to express how my life is affected. I am a multidisciplinary artist, but my primary vehicle of expression is performance, and whilst the majority of my work entails live performances, I also experiment with performance in other forms that I deem as performative such as video, photography and more recently 2-dimensional pieces that have been created in a performative way. My work aims to communicate themes such as vulnerability, visibility and fragility as well as often focusing on the theme of repetition, making links between the ritualistic nature of illnesses such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and repetition as part of art.

Is Art relevant today?

Yes, without a doubt; I actually feel that right now making art is more important than ever. As an artist living through a incredibly unique time that will go down in history books, I feel a sense of duty to create work that documents the world we’re living in and, in particular to my practice, the challenges that a global health crisis poses for people suffering with mental illness. I believe that art can often make tricky subjects like mental illness more accessible to people and I think art will always speak to people in a way that so many other mediums can not, making it continually relevant despite changing times.

We are always asked what other artists influence us, we want to know what art you don’t like and why?

I don’t like to say that I don’t like certain types of art as I feel I can’t put a blanket statement like that out without seeing every single piece of art under it, which is of course impossible. For example, I’ve never been a fan of landscapes and more often than not I do not feel drawn to them and I don’t feel inspired by them, but I have also seen landscapes that I found incredibly powerful and inspiring – that’s the great thing about art, it’s so subjective that even something you’re certain you won’t be into can surprise you, especially when you see it in person. I’ve also never been a fan of polished sculptural works, like those of Jeff Koons, as to me they seem too refined and cold. I’d much rather see a piece that shows movement and emotion, pieces that allow you to see the artist’s process in. Being an artist that used my body as my main medium, I am incredibly influenced by other performance artists, even more so by artists who allow audience participation. My practice is about being vulnerable and so I am greatly inspired by artist’s who incorporate vulnerability in their work. Marina Abramovic’s ‘Rhythm 0’, Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut piece’, Adrian Howell’s ‘Foot washing for the sole’ are all great examples of this and pieces that inspire me greatly.

If you could go back 10-20 years, what would you tell your younger self?

10 years ago I had just started my National Diploma in Art and Design at college, essentially the very start of my arts career and education! As a student who was struggling with severe OCD, who had just got diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was on the verge of developing psychosis, I’d love to tell that anxiety-ridden teenager, who quite honestly didn’t even believe she would make it into 2011, of all the wonderful things that she would do in her art career over the next 10 years. She would never have believed that one day she’d have completed an MA in Fine Art, won an international arts award, or travelled to Venice alone to perform in front of over 100 people. In fact, the very idea that she, an incredibly shy girl who hid behind her paintings, would become a primarily performance based artist would have blown her mind alone! However, I wouldn’t want to ruin all of these surprises, and I am a strong believer that things happen for a reason, so even though I might want to, I wouldn’t mention the future at all. Instead, I would encourage her to continue working hard and also tell her that whilst she loves painting, she shouldn’t limit herself to one medium – that she doesn’t need to define herself as a painter or a sculptor because she is simply an artist, and as an artist she can make work in any medium that she feels communicates best. That is definitely something I wish I had understood earlier in my life.

If you could go forward 10-20 years what do you hope to have done or not done?

As I mentioned in the last question, teenage Laura found it very hard to look forward and spent so much of her time not believing that she would make it from one year to the next. This was due to the fact that her mind was consumed by her OCD, an illness that constantly told her she would get sick and die which made it incredibly hard to plan more than around 6 months at a time. Fast-forward to today and I still struggle with looking into the future – thankfully I am not as unwell as I was back then, and so this is something that has definitely got better for me, but it still makes questions like this incredibly hard for me to answer especially into today’s global pandemic crisis. Times are more uncertain than ever and thinking even 5 years ahead is challenging for me. But unlike teenage Laura, I do now set myself goals, with one being to do a solo show in London. I have no idea when this will be possible due to the pandemic, but I intend to include a lot of the work I have made during this quarantine period, and so even though there’s no date in sight, it feels like I am constantly working on this goal. I would also love to travel more! I had to beat my huge fear of flying two years ago to go and perform in Venice and now that I am able to fly there are so many places I would love to go and work. Again, with the pandemic it seems hard to really know if and when these things might be possible, but as long as I keep making art whilst I wait then that’s what really matters to me.