2002

inkjet prints on silk, cotton, polyester filling, thread, stainless steel shelf

24"H x 36"W x 12"D

Pillows is a stack of pillows covered in pillowcases. Each pillowcase is sewn out of fabric on which images of skin have been inkjet printed. Each pillowcase possesses unique markings and coloring and is printed from a different image of skin. They evoke our psychological relationship to objects as projection surfaces for comfort and familiarity. The comfortable nature of the soft pillow is undermined by the magnified detail of the skin and even more so by the image of meat-like flesh on the pillow inside the pillowcase.

Reviews:

"...the show is stolen like a steak left alone with a crafty family pet by Laura Splan, who contributed the most immediately appealing and repellent pieces in it--and the neat trick she pulls off is that neither is quite what it initially seems... The uncanny conflation of earthly delights and rigor mortis provides food for thought for years to come, and could even send Freud himself scurrying off to the psychoanalyst..." (Bing, Artweek, February 2005)

"...Splan combines people and medical paraphernalia into stinging image poems melding, à la Cronenberg, 'beauty and horror, comfort and discomfort'..." (Cheng, Artweek, October 2003)