Louise Black graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2021 with an undergraduate degree in Fine Art, receiving the Society of Scottish Artists New Graduate Award. Since then Black has continued to develop her practice. She received a Masters with distinction in Fine Art from DJCAD in 2022, and was awarded a John Kinross Scholarship to Florence from the Royal Scottish Academy. Black currently has work on show at the Zabludowicz Collection, London as a selected finalist for the Mother Art Prize 2023.
Through physiology, Black’s work investigates the female figure as a main catalyst point. In touch with issues of female identity, the body and the maternal as subject, Black investigates alternative methods of seeing and being seen. Through a selected use of mediums aiming to interrogate the link between gender, craft, and domesticity, Black blurs the distinction between interior and exterior, as figurative representation and abstraction materialise.
A practice inspired by human anatomy and the beautiful and the grotesque directs sculptural works to appear both familiar and unsettling simultaneously, at one with the human condition. Works in a visual narrative hover between birth and mortality, and the precarious thresholds in-between.
With nods to the formalities of a surgical theatre, a dressing table, and a sewing loom, a practical workspace is served for labour, mending, looking, and reflecting. Materials and processes embedded within the installation are charged with both tenderness and violence, aiding a need to express internal emotions. Where quilted textiles are produced through the repetitive rhythm of a darning needle, ragged edges of Black’s nails catch the delicate surfaces of the textiles, allowing for moments of caring and self-care to be cautiously considered.
