3 | The Juicers

5 – 11 Jan 2015

fig-2 at ICA, London

Laura Eldret’s work explores the production of materials and events as a process of social exchange. As the first instalment of fig-2 at the ICA, ‘3 | The Juicers’ includes new fabric works alongside drawings, and video rushes resulting from her time spent in late 2014 researching, documenting and making work in a pueblo in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. As part of her time there, Eldret commissioned a series of rugs from local Zapotec weavers, creating new designs that reflect on stories she experienced or overheard. She sees these as ‘receipts of exchange’ of her interaction with the rug makers, catalysts for building relationships with individuals and experiments in how sociability can be recorded in fabric form. The rugs manifest different narratives, social codes and pleasures in the community: tensions between tradition and modernity, custom and individuality, expectation and opinion. For example, one rug depicts a series of bells and TV screens – reflecting on an incident that occurred in the pueblo on the Day of the Dead, involving the simultaneous encounter of an older technology (bells) and a more modern one (television). Eldret has been commissioned by fig-2 to realise a major new video work from this project that will be shown in December 2015 as the final instalment of the fig-2 programme.

With thanks to the rug makers Nesefero, Taurino Santiago Ruiz, Sotero Gutierrez Lorenzo, Mariano Sosa Martinez, Jorge Ruiz Correño, and Manuel Bazan. Special thanks to Polina Stroganova, Lori Benson and Roberta Christie for their support. Travel in Mexico was supported by British Council and Arts Council England’s Artists' International Development Fund.

Selection of press coverage:

http://cover-magazine.com/news/rugs-fig-2-ica-london/

http://blog.frieze.com/fig-2-launch-the-first-of-50-shows-at-the-ica-london/

http://www.apollo-magazine.com/fig-2-ica-rehashed-pop-exhibition-somehow-works/

http://www.cagepatterns.com/#!3-The-Juicers-at-fig2-150/colb/6036DCE5-334E-44D3-A024-EA37B06E3F78

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/blogs/Back-with-a-fever/36773

http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/fig-2-laura-eldret

http://www.cityam.com/206826/art-review-fig-2-ica-studio

http://artdaily.com/news/75544/Artist-Laura-Eldret-creates-unique-installation-for-opening-of-fig-2-#.VL1sAcYdWRA

http://www.cityam.com/206826/art-review-fig-2-ica-studio

http://www.sleek-mag.com/showroom/2015/01/reviving-the-noughties-fig-2-opens-at-the-ica/

http://reusingoldgraves.weebly.com/one-line/laura-eldretthe-juicersfig-2-150-ica