Patrick Mikhail Gallery, April-August 2025
Gracelee Lawrence's exhibition VECTOR FIELD references both the physics of fluid motion and organisms transmitting pathogens, complicating human attempts at empirical understanding. In this series, Lawrence incorporates insects as jewelry or decoration, framing them as delicate adornments and symbols of ecological interdependence. Rather than fear or animosity, these works imagine a future of coexistence through mutual ornamentation.
Lawrence's work deals with the interplay between digital fabrication and hand augmentation, merging physical and digital realities. Through 3D scanning, software manipulation, and the integration of edible plants, her 3D printed sculptures examine shifting boundaries between technology, the body, and biology. Often using 3D printer filament derived from GMO corn, she critiques the ecological and ethical complexities of bioplastics, questioning sustainability narratives and industrial agriculture's environmental impact.
Her beaded curtain sculptures originate in digital environments, where she constructs virtual scenes of foliage and figures. Screenshots from these spaces are translated into beaded curtains, with each pixel corresponding to a hand-strung glass bead. By transforming digital data into physical form, Lawrence bridges the ephemeral and the tangible. The shared materiality of glass in both beads and computing systems reinforces the connection between digital and physical worlds, grounding transient imagery in handcrafted presence.
