​​​​​​​Laura Gamboa

Internal Drainage series

 

 

Internal Drainage emerged from the constant moving of my family from one city to another when I was three years old until I was seven. Changing friendships within the same social group, a conflict in a relationship that somehow leads to silence, distance and ends in separation and, from a parallel distance of three different people -three friends and three members of my family- who are important in my life.

Internal Drainage aimed to express the accumulation of feelings of loss, loneliness, alienation, need, search for identity, emotional stability, describing each member of my family in the art work.

The art work originated from these events but focused mainly on the family distance, on the personalities that every family member had when we were together and the ones that they have now after this separation. These three people are my siblings and my father. They live in different countries, and although my father just was in another city, a few hours away, his absence was the most present because of the role he has in the family. Thus, there was resentment towards the paternal figure because he was not there when he was needed and this results in indifference, lack of communication, irresponsibility ... hence, distance.

Distance with and without you.

 Internal Drainage attempted to describe each member of my family, including my sister and my mother who stayed here.

 Again with you.           
 

During my studies at the university I worked mainly with maps, where collages were done with different kinds of fabric. Distance was the subject of my art work, and it was represented by the use of varnish as if it was honey in different supports such as paper, wood, canvas and fabrics. Through black lines, varying the thickness and its different directions, each member of my family was represented.
 
The work of these lines in the painting, led me to explore the various types of lines in print making, with an interest in Chinese calligraphy. The Chinese characters are beautiful by it selves: the delicacy and harmony of its forms, producing poetry and expressing spirituality. So there began a search of deeper meaning of the use of lines in the art work. Lines are rivers, roads, electricity cables, addresses; they always connect to something, to somewhere.