Lauren Adams
BITTER HARVEST
March 5, 2010 - April 30, 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’s ‘Golden Crescent’.
Bitter Harvest documents the images published about this issue in popular media over the past several years, reinscribing this disturbing narrative. The result is a visually overwhleming set of three textile paintings overwhelmed by poppy flowers and human figures. The pattern evident in the flags, inspired by contemporary war reporting and 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.
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