2011 Migration & Transformation; a survey exhibition of drawings and prints from 1981-2011 held during the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2011
Lauryn Arnott’s origins have always been part of the equation, but her identity is often confused if not contested in the different ways she is promoted. She has variously been described as a Zambian, British, Zimbabwean, South African or an Australian artist. She is each and all these identities; but in choosing one without the others, or to choose one over the over, a particular story of contemporary dispossession is erased. She is only too aware that the notion that there is danger of the single story [1], not only is it the story of Colonialism but one that starts wars and divides up peoples and countries.
Lauryn Arnott has lived in the emerging democracies of South Africa and Zimbabwe. She had the bizarre and contradictory experience of having been personally congratulated by President Robert Mugabe for her politically driven artwork while also having been evicted from her home and her homeland under his land redistribution policies; arriving in Adelaide in 2003. This artist skilfully explores issues of identity, particularly the complex position of people who arrive in Australia in order to escape from oppressive political regimes. Lauryn is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the 2006 Association of Commonwealth Universities Art Prize for her drawing called Journey Home in a competition titled a place in the world. She has exhibited her work in many international exhibitions and has work in a number of museum collections in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Her writing was published in a book about conflict and war in Africa, and she is interested in continuing work with new and emerging communities through art. She believes artistic expression offers a new way of understanding and processing trauma.
[1] To here more about this idea listen to Nigerian Author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk : The danger of a single story
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © LAURYN ARNOTT
Lauryn Arnott has lived in the emerging democracies of South Africa and Zimbabwe. She had the bizarre and contradictory experience of having been personally congratulated by President Robert Mugabe for her politically driven artwork while also having been evicted from her home and her homeland under his land redistribution policies; arriving in Adelaide in 2003. This artist skilfully explores issues of identity, particularly the complex position of people who arrive in Australia in order to escape from oppressive political regimes. Lauryn is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the 2006 Association of Commonwealth Universities Art Prize for her drawing called Journey Home in a competition titled a place in the world. She has exhibited her work in many international exhibitions and has work in a number of museum collections in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Her writing was published in a book about conflict and war in Africa, and she is interested in continuing work with new and emerging communities through art. She believes artistic expression offers a new way of understanding and processing trauma.
[1] To here more about this idea listen to Nigerian Author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk : The danger of a single story
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © LAURYN ARNOTT
