PARK Magazine

ARTS
GALLERY PHOTOS: CHRISTINA GAPIC
“REMOVING DETAILS
CAN LEAVE ROOM FOR
THE VIEWER TO ENTER
INTO A MORE
EMOTIONAL SPACE
WITHIN THE IMAGE
AND BE ABLE TO PLAY
IN THEIR OWN
IMAGINATION.”
before that it just felt like more of a faraway dream, I
suppose.”
It was when she was entrenched in the backend of
things that Laura Jane understood that there was a lot
going on behind all the glitz and glamour of an art gallery.
“It really takes a village! You need a team of producers
and technicians to make something happen.” As
she continued working with other artists, many of whom
were on the academic side of things, this soon-to-be star
photographer also concluded that she wanted her work
to come from a place of exploring ideas. “The medium
of photography in a deconstructed way which makes
it possible to explore ideas that are more ambiguous
and open. Photography captures time and place, but I
am most interested in work that aims to broaden our
senses or that speaks to our intellectual mind rather
than getting caught up in details. To me, that’s the very
nature of photography. My greatest goal is to create work
that connects with people’s inner world in the same way
that art and music has done for me over all these years,
in a mostly poetic way.”
Laura Jane attributes her attraction to abstraction to
an earlier time in her life and career when she was diagnosed
with an eye condition that required intense treatment
for a couple of years. This condition led her to see
things, including her work, in a completely different
light. This greater interest in abstraction subsequently
changed her relationship to photography. “Removing
details can leave room for the viewer to enter into a more
emotional space within the image and be able to play
in their own imagination,” she explains. “Much like a
song, having less details gives us the chance to have our
own interpretations.”
Through her latest collection featuring well-known
artists, including actors and dancers from the renowned
National Ballet of Canada, Laura Jane is taking her ideals
to higher - and more enlightened heights. This current
body of work entitled MA, is a Japanese term which
is based on the absent spaces in art and architecture
that give form to an object. This concept of negative
space relates to all aspects of life. The interval created,
whether in the mind or the physical realm, is a regenerative
pause.
“This is such an incredible metaphor for the time we’ve
been living in,” explains Laura Jane. It was through this
personal work that she was able to go back to abstraction.
Let’s just say that getting the opportunity to work
with such artists as choreographer and contemporary
dancer Andrea Nann, actor Chloe Rose, dancer Adelaide
Sadler, and National Ballet of Canada dancer Connor
Hamilton, first soloist Calley Skalnik and principal dancer
Siphe November, was one very shining silver lining of