Jennifer Lauren Martin

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Jennifer Lauren Martin is a London-based artist, filmmaker, and writer whose practice grapples with questions of interpersonal belonging. A significant chapter of Lauren Martin's work (2017 - 2023) concerns how self-perception and presentation, relation and more are mediated by film and TV, whereby media coaches the 'thing' into production through reenactment, conformity, exposure, and the terrible process of representation. Their most recent work (2023 - ongoing) is situated in the more intimate field of intra-relations. They specifically seek to trace the intra-encounters of black people and queer people through a psychosomatic lens. This language focuses on communities' inner lives. It's an interiority that isn't just about the individual point of view or interior world, but also about the communal inner world–where dreams, visions and ways of being coalesce and contradict. Their research is animated by critic Angelica Jade Bastién's concept of 'The Feminine Grotesque': the unsettling, often contradictory way intense emotions such as fear and desire are embodied and expressed in portrayals of women. Lauren Martin often depicts these inner struggles as physical effects on characters' bodies, emotional and psychological tensions that surface on the skin, in bodily tics, or even by choking. Their UK solo exhibitions were held at Kingsgate Workshops, Primary and Turf Projects. Lauren Martin's works have been exhibited and programmed across the UK and internationally,...

Artwork