As part of her time as the AGO x RBC Artist-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Laura explored the intersections of embroidery and 3D printing and created Fieldwork, a large-scale interactive textile installation in Walker Court. The overall composition was inspired by aerial views of the Canadian prairies and was created on a large yellow freestanding metal grid. Custom 3D printed perforated pieces filled the grid with pixelated colour and were embroidered with a variety of textile techniques, which reference the textures of different plants and trees. Visitors interacted with the installation by each embroidering one of the printed pieces with yarn and adding it to the composition.
Laura has lived in Toronto for many years, but she often flies back to Calgary to visit her family, enjoying the aerial views of the green and yellow patterned prairies in the process. This past summer, Laura drove from Toronto to Calgary and back to finally see this landscape up close (and so that her dog could travel too). The colours of this textile installation were selected to reference this environment and the variety in textile techniques relate to the variety of textures visible when both flying over and driving through this landscape. As part of her residency, Laura looked at examples of textiles, repetition, and grid-inspired artworks in the AGO collection to evolve the conceptual language for her own practice and proposed collaborative project.