Lauren Adams
BITTER HARVEST
March 27, 2010 - May 11, 2010
Bitter Harvest explores the artist's research into Afghani poppy fields and the relationship between American military operations, the Taliban, and civilian farmers in Afghanistan.
The three flags on display for Cosign Projects appropriates images published in popular media over the past several years, reinscribing this disturbing narrative. The result is a series of textile paintings overwhelmed by poppy flowers and human figures. The pattern evident in the flags, inspired by traditional wallpaper and ornament design, visually seduces the viewer while simultaneously assaulting them with hallucinatory images of poppy cultivation and its relationship to the international drug trade, the American military incursion in Afghanistan, and the cycle of economic underdevelopment in rural farm areas of the Golden Crescent.
To read the artist's statement, click here
Lauren Frances Adams, Skowhegan, Maine
Lauren Adams is an artist residing in St. Louis, Missouri, whose work over the past several years has commonly focused on the relationship between agriculture, class, politics, and labor. An upcoming exhibition at Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland, CA will feature a site-specific painting installation, reflecting similar work to Bitter Harvest at Cosign Projects. In Adams’ past works, the artist uses popular historical forms of ornament and craft design, such as the toile du juoy pattern which inspired Bitter Harvest, to comment upon contemporary political and social issues.
Adams recently attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and is scheduled for an upcoming residency at the Cite in Paris, France. She currently teaches painting at Washington University in St. Louis.
See Lauren Adams' website here
