Laura Jean Healey | The Work
Statement
The film theorist Tom Gunning defined the early Cinema as a 'Cinema of Attractions' in which the projected image exists as pure spectacle, which solicits the audiences’ voyeuristic gaze and encourages their curiosity. It is this curiosity that Laura Jean Healey seeks to manipulate within her film work as she investigates the nature of both the camera and the audiences gaze. In particular, her work explores the role and objectification of the female form within the screen, the inherent paradoxical nature of cinema exhibition and the desire it raises within the spellbound spectator.
In this context, Healey’s work questions the role of the screen as a theatrical space of pure exhibition, “a hyperbole designed for the spectacle of pure visibility” (Anne Friedberg) which, by its very definition, simply remains a blank surface on which a photographic image is projected. It is within the projected film plane that a tension is realised between the material and the immaterial and this is one of the specific elements that Healey’s work aims to examine. The projected presence of mere 'shadows' gives rise to the illusion of a virtual presence and creates an impression of something more - a sense of depth where shadows are knowingly mistaken for substance. Even though we are aware of this deception, we remain seduced by the illusion of the pure aesthetic, or rather the aesthetic of deception and derive pleasure from our seemingly active gaze (scopophilia), a paradox which Laura has captured in her short films ‘The Siren’ and the ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ series.
Laura Jean Healey is a BA (Hons) Fine Arts graduate from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. Since completing a successful mentorship with Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey BSC, she has been working in the film and television industry. Healey has collaborated with Musion Systems Ltd. to produce holographic film installations, as well as her own art films and performance projects including the very first slow motion, underwater holographic film installation.
CV
EDUCATION
22nd October – 26th October 2012, firstsite: Contemporary Visual Arts Centre, Colchester, UK
- · Franko B Performance Residency Workshop
12th – 14th April 2010 ~ Lighting for Film & Television, National Film & Television School, Beaconsfield, UK
- · 6 placement, intensive lighting for 35mm film & HD industry standard short course with Steven Priovolos
April 2007 – July 2007, Technical Change Scheme, Women in Film & Television, London, UK
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October 2002 – July 2006, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, London, UK
- · BA (Hons) Fine Art ~ Pass with First Class Honours
- · Specialising in 16mm & Digital Film Installation Work
September 2001 – July 2002, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, UK
- · Diploma in Foundation Studies of Art & Design ~ Pass with Merit
EXHIBITIONS
Year, Group Exhibition/ Solo Exhibition, Gallery name, Location
Future Exhibitions:
March 2013, Sweet’Art Group Exhibition, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK
December 2012, 14th Festival des Cinemas Differents et Experimentaux de Paris, Les Voûtes, Paris, France
Past Exhibitions:
November 2012, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK
February 2012, Musion Academy Showcase ~ Kinetica Art Fair, Ambika P3, London, UK
February 2011, Musion Academy Showcase ~ Kinetica Art Fair, Ambika P3, London, UK
May 2010, Holographic Serendipity, Holographic Installation Group Show, Shunt, The London Bridge Tunnels, London, UK
AWARDS
Year, Award, Name, Location
2012, Musion Academy Multimedia Corporate Award, Laura Jean Healey, London, UK
April 2007 – July 2007, Technical Change Scheme, Women in Film & Television, London, UK
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