Lauren Marsden

July 2019

During her time at What Lab, Lauren began material research for a new series of sculptures and videos called Carnival Mentality, which responded to the cultural and political contexts of Trinidad & Tobago. Specifically, this research looked at how physical materials can move, shift, or change over time, essentially becoming the “performers” of an artwork. The title Carnival Mentality is based upon a well-known disparaging statement made in 1975 by the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.

Lauren experimented with materials relevant to Trinibagonian culture and economy, such as cacao, sugar, crude oil, bottled water, rum, and hair extensions, in order to explore how this infamous quote in Caribbean society can be seen as a double-sided concept—one that is steeped in a sense of shame and humour, futility and freedom, much like the country’s self-image.