By Evan Sancel
The Scene staff
Chicago-based painter and photographer Laura Mackin is displaying her latest work in Forest Park’s Gallery of Contemporary Art through Dec. 11.
The exhibit “Come Slowly, Eden” features collages of images found on the Internet and “reinterpreted” to make original statements.
“It started as a collection of images of mirror reflections,” said Mackin, 33. “It’s photographs of nature, screened through a mirror, a camera and a computer monitor. It’s about viewing and feeling detached and framed and virtual.”
The exhibit takes its name from the poem “Come, Slowly – Eden!” by Emily Dickinson, whom Mackin lists as one of her influences.
“We’ve made this comfortable world for ourselves that can be kind of detached,” she said. “ … The perfect virtual world would be ‘Eden’ and the ‘come slowly’ is not feeling ready for as much change as we’ve had in the past 20 years.”
Mackin earned her master’s degree in fine arts with a specialization in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she teaches.
“I always worked on art and loved it,” she said. “My parents are pretty practical, though, so they weren’t too keen on the idea.”
Forest Park Art Department Chair Jamie Kreher and Gallery Director Yingxue Zuo helped organize the exhibit.
“This show is about photo images, but also it is not,” Zuo said. “It’s a new medium. Laura Mackin is part of a new generation of artists who use a different way of expressing their ideas.”
Kreher and Mackin earned their master’s degrees at the School of the Art Institute at about the same time, between 2003 and 2005, with Kreher studying photography and Mackin studying painting. They met while working on an exhibit.
“The curators grouped students together based on their work similarity,” Kreher said. “Laura and I ended up getting placed in the same curated group, so she and I worked together closely on that.”
The collaboration led to a friendship that helped bring about Mackin’s exhibit at Forest Park.
“Ever since we’ve been friends, I’ve always been interested in her work,” Kreher said. “It’s been in the back of my mind for a couple years ‑ how I really want her to have a show here in St. Louis ‑ so I proposed it for our calendar.
“I really think it will be great for the students to see.”
After the exhibit’s conclusion at Forest Park, Mackin intends to shop “Come Slowly, Eden” to other galleries, primarily in Chicago and Portland.