Laurel Roth’s Hope Chest

Laurel Roth. ‘Born Again Virgin’ 2006. Hand embroidered pantyliner, lace 4 x 8 inches

Laurel Roth makes extraordinary chandeliers from hypodermic needles and gelatin capsules. Seeing them featured on Beautiful Decay drew me to her site, which features more series of fantastic work, drawing on themes of sexual competitiveness in evolution, pharmacopiea and Darwinian impulse.

A stand-out for me is her “Hope Chest” series, in her words “Relearning embroidery and crochet techniques originally learned in childhood, I’ve also been filling my own “hope chest” with off-kilter reflections on biology, fertility, and the ever-changing roles of women.”

Laurel Roth ‘PMS Flowers’ 2008. Hand embroidered pantyliners, rose thorns 4 x 8 inches

They make the unspeakable beautiful, muster complex socio-body-political relationships with homespun simplicity. Quite quite wonderful.

Her work can be seen at loloro.com. Recommended.