Works are materially and theoretically led and often incorporate scripted narratives. Within their practice, Lauren Martin traces black diasporic and queer social relations, blending narrative and experimental approaches to draw viewers in and create a psychosomatic connection. Characters often undergo a journey in which psychological tension and drama manifest as physical effects. Bodies, in their breakdowns, reveal what has been felt and suppressed. In this way, the body becomes another actor or writer in the narrative. Critic Angelica Jade Bastién's term The Feminine Grotesque has helped Lauren Martin to language a thread within their work–a discomfort in being manifesting through extreme emotion. They see this as the twitch in our outward presentations and fear of never reaching a point of understanding between ourselves and others. Their current research into the British and French black diaspora grounds their film in development, ‘a little choke’, centring on a friendship breakup. The film is a character-driven narrative exploration of belonging in the black diaspora tied into Marseille’s social-geographic history.
Channel is Somerset House’s new curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.
