Studio Visit with Lauren P McAloon

By EB (aka Ennid Berger)

I was somewhere on Stock Island, having arranged to meet with artist Lauren P McAloon who was busy preparing for her upcoming exhibition.  After getting a little lost among the sailmakers and shipbuilders, it was a relief to identify an inconspicuous drive leading to her spacious, high-ceilinged art studio.  Lauren was inside, hard at work shaping signal and flag forms into boat shaped bundles, fashioned to represent the physical and mental burdens migrants carry. She is clearly one of Key West’s top artists, and she will soon be in a league of her own when Vessel Series: I’MMIGRATION, opens in early March at the Sanger Gallery of the Studios of Key West.

With this series of work, Lauren seeks to encourage each person’s awareness of their ancestors’ migrations and, also, simultaneously, to highlight awareness of current population movements which are stressing the global psyche and increasing a pervasive sense of displacement.  The historical events Lauren addresses in her work include: historic European migrations to the US, the sordid history of 18th century slavers in Madagascar, the horrifying 19th century American “Trail of Tears” forced relocation of Native Americans, and, the contemporary flood of people attempting escape from totalitarian regimes, including the Cubans who arrive in Key West.  As Lauren stated with clarity, “The title of the show should be pronounced, “I’m Migration” to emphasize the fact that, ‘No matter who we are, we all have migration in our personal history, either by choice or by force.’

Lauren likens her creative constructs to “little snippets of a vast subject.”  A New England native, Lauren’s earlier life was filled with tugboats, ships and sailing.   In an ode to her past, her artwork highlights boating elements and boatlike shapes to suggest movement, resettlement and relocation, as well as to reference her respect for journey, travel and change.  Much of Lauren’s work is an aggregate of masterfully glazed, handmade ceramic vessels, which are meticulously assembled into objects of  travel and migration. Lauren’s love of history is reflected in the work.  She was strongly impacted by her realization that the feet of the Statue of Liberty emerge from broken shackles.  Her fascination with multiple repeated forms was inspired by Chinese and Russian abacuses, Japanese fishing floats and other remnants of history.

Part of the viewer’s fascination with Lauren’s work stems from its fascinating materiality – the dumpster diving, store-bought, nature made and repurposed objects that populate the vessels on her personal ocean.  The beauty of the innumerable elements is increased by combining disparate items ranging from tiny people, to poinciana seed pods, to C chug Cuban oars from the mangrove swamps, stones, springs, rudders and chains.  Lauren’s frequent use of repeated forms and multiple objects to create large pieces of art suggests not only movement and large masses of migration, but also the enormsus number of people affected. Appearing both simple in execution yet complex in undertaking, these large, uniquely constructed works are a powerful visual metaphor for the enormity of this world-wide issue.

Lauren P McAloon’s new exhibition, entitled “Vessel Series: Immigration” opens at the Studios of Key West on Thursday March 7th and runs through March 28, 2024. 

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