Lauren Clay’s installations and sculptures allude to the ethereal architecture of dreams, visionary experiences, and astral travel. Influenced by both personal and collective dream imagery, Clay transforms this amorphous subject matter into a physical reality that is ornate and visceral. Her wall-based sculptures compress and distort space with low-relief architectural carvings, and hand-painted marble. Stairs, doorways, windows, and energetic pathways intertwine, alluding to passageways that are never quite attainable. Clay’s sculptural works are often exhibited within immersive mural-sized wallpaper installations which manipulate and play with the existing gallery architecture, creating additional layers of illusion. At this hypnagogic gateway, the viewer slips into the indeterminate theater of the dream world. These works are an invitation for the viewer to enter, and complete the scene by turning the gaze inward with their own mind’s eye.
Lauren Clay grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Clay’s work is influenced by her interests in dream analysis, Jungian psychology, esoteric texts, mythology, yoga, and architecture.