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DRIVES MY GREEN AGE

Laurence Sturla

Exhibition October 18 - November 22, 2024

Open Thursdays to Saturdays 14h - 18h & by rdv: info@goswellroad.com

For his second solo exhibition at Goswell Road, Laurence Sturla (b.1992, UK) suggests a ruminant digestive system with twelve compartments laid bare. This system sits on a bed of scars, salt, and smears, replacing the regular ceramic tiled flooring in the space with his new pattern composed of mortar tubs laid out in strict formation, assimilating familiar feelings of decay and life.

drives my green age

This anatomical graphical diagram of the artist’s studio is flayed, splayed, spilt, and broken. Augurs appearing on the topographical coordinates designed by implied intersecting longitudinal and latitudinal lines, as evidence, predicting themselves as they fall apart in front of us: testaments to his and their failure. The practice is in the crosshairs; constant acts of dredging, extracting, sifting, or allegorical smelting, throw up seasonal ‘daily bouquets’. Memories of industrial ceramic ashtrays and a momentary pause - a well-earned cigarette break by the factory wall.

drives my red blood

He speaks to the British canals: the veins and arteries that enabled heavy industrial goods to flourish in the 18th Century. These same canals became the backdrop to romance and destruction, before leisure, desolation, bars, and coffee shops. Now: down South an open-air cinema sits on the canal next to Saint Martins in Kings Cross. Now: Up North, there’s only degradation and overgrown plants - secret places for adolescents to drink and consummate their teenage years.

stirs the quicksand

Those banded tide lines hold the keys to deciphering those locks. Locks that contain and restrain differing levels acquiesce the horizon to rise and fall effortlessly, regurgitating vessels on raised ground. The resting moments allow his stomachs to bring up the cud, which is then re-chewed, broken down, re-salivated, and eventually re-swallowed. This makes his whole process a lot easier to digest.

Bio: Laurence Sturla (b.1992 Swindon, UK) lives and works in Vienna.

Solo shows: ‘Went to Country’, Project Native Informant, London, UK (2024) Frieze London 2023, Focus Section with Gianni Manhattan, Liste Art Fair 2022 with Gianni Manhattan, Basel, Switzerland, ‘Through Tongue and Soil’, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna, Austria (2022), ‘Stone Dreams’, Loggia, Munich, Germany (2021) ‘The Shooter’s Drunk!’, Pina, Vienna, Austria (2018),  ‘Behind The Fridge’, Goswell Road, Paris (2017). Recent group shows: ‘Hard Soft’, MAK, Vienna, Austria (2023), ‘Uber Das Neu’, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria (2023), ‘Collection’, Museum Der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria (2022).