Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Moore Girl Power

After a short hiatus, I'm happy to be back on the blog today, introducing you to Laura Robinson of the Henry Moore Foundation. She's been pictured here before--in April and May posts--but I thought it was high time you get to know her better.

Laura studied Fine Art -Sculpture (4yr BA Newcastle and 2yr MFA at The Slade School, University College London). During this time she worked with her sister in theater as a scenic painter. After completing her studies, she worked in a variety of related jobs including assisting other artists such as Rachel Whiteread (fabrication of 'Empty Plinth' for Trafalgar Square), making and installing work in the British Art Show 5 for Phyllida Barlow, and being cast by Antony Gormely as one of his first 'Insider' series. She then worked at the Tate Gallery in the Art Handling Department.
Affairs of the heart drew her away from London, to the idyllic British countryside, otherwise known as 'the sticks'. Moving into the realm of Conservation, she found herself working for a company repairing stone and plaster work on churches in the East of England. After some years she saw an advertisement in the paper for her current position, and knew it was more "her" and more closely related to what she trained in. She went for it and has"never looked back!"

Laura's current position is Sculpture Conservator for the Henry Moore Foundation. The position involves preparing, caring for, and installing the Foundation's collections which include not only monumental sculptures such as the ones installed at the Garden, but also works on paper and textiles.
The large-scale sculpture work is extremely demanding physically, and frankly, you just don't see a lot chics out there lifting the sides off crates and rigging massive bronzes. (Rigging is the process of hooking straps up to the artwork and guiding it as it is lifted by the crane.) She fit right in at the estrogen-driven Garden (most of our own staff happens to be female). But, not one of the equipment operators or riggers from Superior Rigging, our beloved local rigging and equipment company, had ever seen much less worked with a female rigger before. They had to visibly restrain themselves from their mostly-Southern upbringings and refrain from the compulsory "I'll get that ma'am."

Getting to know Laura has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. She's extremely smart, thoughtful, and genuine. She and her relentlessly teasing co-worker James make a HILAROUS partnership I truly miss. One Laura's most endearing qualities is her curiousity. She is deeply interested in people, in art, and the world around her. She often uses her artist's eye and a camera to explore, so I asked Laura for a photo essay of her experience and she sent me the following images, which I've arranged roughly in chronological order from arrival in Atlanta through the installtion. Enjoy! You can post comments for Laura at the end.

1 comment:

  1. I loved the new pictures about the set up. I love your blogs and the guest's blogs.

    The May Atlanta magazine had a nice article about you and the Moore exhibit.
    Many thanks.
    A. Pugh

    ReplyDelete