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NEAR DEATH, STILL LIFE

Laura Tiffin
04.02.25 – 21.03.25

About:

In a recurring nightmare she’s had for the last 15-20 years, Laura encounters what she knows to be a makeshift aquarium—a container with capacity to hold water (Tupperware in refrigerators, a humidifier in a closet) or a scene that is water-deficient. Each scenario would present terminally ill fish or other marine animals living inside these containers. In the first 7 years of this dream, someone would appear to tell her that it was her negligence that had caused it. Beyond those 7 years, no one would arrive but she knew tacitly that it had been her responsibility. She panicked in the dream knowing she had caused the suffering every time, even though it was not clear that the fish belonged to her.

Death is always imminent for the creatures in these scenes—they are starving because she forgot to feed them, swimming sideways at the bottom, or barely moving in the tank, intoxicated by their own waste. The theme oscillates between violent neglect and gentle absurdity. She began to notice that the periods of time when she paused her art practice the nightmares would emerge. It was when she reengaged with her practice and began making work again that the nightmares began to fade. Without a clear understanding of what the ghost fish were trying to tell her, they became the topic she undertook in her work, knowing that they were somehow revelatory about the world around her and her own psyche.

………………

Laura Tiffin, b. 1980.

Born in the US, raised in southern New Mexico, Laura attended school Pratt Institute in New York City and graduated in 2004. She lived in Brooklyn for over 20 years and has been on the White Columns artist registry for 4 years. She has kept a studio practice in Mexico City for the last 3 years.