Summoning Giants
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Alone in her studio with art materials and a set of weights, Lauren dela Roche’s process is the epitome of art’s aesthetic and emotional transformation to one’s persona, psyche and physique. Epic is a good description of her recent body of paintings. She’s using stretched out livestock feed bags as a large-scale substrate for her paintings, which feature fantastical scenes of female giants and other symbols and that serve as an allegory for her varied lived experiences and identity.
A solo exhibition of these paintings, titled No Man’s Land, is currently on view through June 15th at Eric Firestone Gallery in lower Manhattan.
In addition to the monumental subject matter and narratives permeating her art, dela Roche’s decision to make big paintings stems from her dedication to weightlifting, which she developed as a way to break up long art making sessions.
She explains that, “My whole life I have tried to be really small, like physically really small…I’m trying to take up space for the first time in my life. And I think that’s the only reason I was able to make a big painting” (quoted in Martin-Gachot, 2024).
Strength training and painting have several factors in common. Each is an act of endurance and highly focused, attuned movement, balance, mobility and form. Painting and weightlifting not only help develop functional motor skills (i.e. good posture and eye–hand coordination), but each discipline can be a great method for boosting emotional wellness.
Judging from both the fruits of her labor and her own personal statements, Roche’s painting and fitness routines effectively complement one another. These big and powerful canvases exude the type of confidence, which can certainly be mustered through strength training.
From my own experience, I’ve found that as I delve further into a fitness-centered lifestyle, I’ve become more confident in other aspects of my life. Art had taken a backseat in recent years due to the state of my mental health. However, I am coming back around to it through the lens of physical fitness (see: “Drawn Together: Collaboration Through Documentation”).
Like dela Roche eloquently expressed, I am also trying to occupy more space in my life, creatively, physically and psychologically. When I make art and when I physically train my body, I am engaging in acts of self expression and self care, and as a result, I am carving out my own niche place in this world.
References, Notes, Suggested Reading:
Martin-Gachot, Ella. “How Weightlifting, a Pentecostal Cult, and a Decommissioned Agricultural Apparatus Informed Lauren dela Roche’s First New York Solo Show,” Cultured Mag, 7 May 2024. https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2024/05/07/lauren-dela-roche-eric-firestone-show
