Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lauryn Lawrence . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lauryn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I feel as though I am already walking in my legacy. I come from a lineage of determined and empowered women and men of all different intersectionalities. With that being said, I hope my legacy will be showcased through my work, curations, and the many people I’ve been able to connect with throughout this life.

A lot of my work is focused on my experiences as an Afro-Latina feminist, how vital the connections I’ve made or have yet to make have impacted my journey, as well as the important bridges and conversations that I work to address through curatorial work. A part of me struggles with this question because I want my legacy to focus on the work that I do, but also on the person I am and still becoming. I hope my legacy showcases the force I am in this world, my drive to create space for those of all intersectionalities, and to simply bestow my light wherever it may be needed.

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Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Lauryn Lawrence and I am an Afro-Latina intersectional feminist artist, independent curator, and writer. With my photography work, my mission is to reconstruct and reimagine the representations of intersectional communities in modern society. With my fiber-based installation work, I focus heavily on the female genitalia. By utilizing my experience, the over-sexualization, and materialization of this body part, I deconstruct the vulvic space using materials such as, fabric, embroidery, and Japanese shibori dyeing processes.

Throughout my work, which leads me to the recent book that I’ve published titled, Women I Know, is my urgent drive to represent, acknowledge and celebrate those that identify as women who have acknowledged me and my experiences globally. I utilize these similar ideas within my curatorial practice. What always intrigued and excited me about curatorial work is the ability to bridge the gaps between artists, viewers, collectors, etc. My recent curatorial work was a group exhibition titled, “Reimagining Docile Bodies.” This exhibition explores the artistic process of artists: Leslie Gomez-Gonzalez, Amaris Cruz-Guerrero, and Ari Temkin in their unique creative pursuit to depict the differences shared within the domestication and materialization of the human body. Through reimagining and reconstructing their experiences with their bodies, domestic practices, and rituals; each artist invites the viewer further into conversations surrounding identity, perpetuated idealizations of the female and male form, and objectives surrounding what Michel Foucault coined the docile body.

It’s been a fruitful and intriguing journey creating a balance between my artistic and curatorial practice. I am constantly learning to step outside of myself and things that comfort me. I don’t work with boundaries because they simply do not exist. What I can say I’m most proud of is how my work can touch people in ways unimaginable and being able to implement vital conversations within these gallery spaces.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

To be quite honest I’m not sure how to crack the code when it concerns how to build your audience on social media. In regards to my journey with this, it really all started by just sharing my work and being vulnerable. It honestly was not easy because social media is so strange, I never know what the “algorithm” is geared to.

By sharing my raw thoughts and my artwork, but also just supporting other creatives that deserve recognition despite if they support me or not is how I’ve been able to grow an audience. My advice would be to not get too caught up in what everybody may be doing or showcasing online, just focus on what you want to share. Share your work because it deserves to be shared, you never know who you can be impacting.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that I have to consistently be producing and sharing work to stay recognized. This is absolutely false because I am not a machine and I do not create work for recognition. The backstory of this is I remember stressing the fact that my upcoming project has surpassed every deadline I had planned due to many factors and I faced such a pang of tremendous guilt because of it. I was feeling almost as if I was doing a disservice to myself by not moving according to an unrealistic timeline. I had to once again recognize that great and personal work truly takes time. I move to the beat of my own drum and just because you may not always see the process, does not mean I’m not working on it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laurynlawrence.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archivesbylauryn/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauryn-lawrence-bbb607170/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkppu0fd5U4&feature=emb_title

Image Credits
Headshot image shot by: @cloudmanlou