Laura Gonzalez is an artist and writer. Her practice encompasses drawing, photography and sculpture, and her work has been exhibited in the UK, Spain and Portugal. She has participated in numerous conferences, including Research into Practice (2008), College Arts Association and the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (2007). When she is not following Freud, Lacan and Marx’s footsteps with her camera, she lectures postgraduate students at the Glasgow School of Art.

She is currently immersed in an interdisciplinary project, which investigates psychoanalytic approaches to making and understanding objects of seduction within the fields of fine art, consumption studies and material culture. Her research includes an examination of parallels between artistic and analytic practices, a study of Manolo Blahnik’s shoes as objects of desire, a disturbing encounter with Marcel Duchamp’s last work, and the creation of a psychoanalytically inspired Discourse of the Artefact, a framework enabling the circulation of questions and answers through a relational approach to artworks. She seeks refuge and inspiration in psycho-geography, especially if it takes her to shopping centres, those mysterious places.

Employment

2010: Summer faculty member and advisor, residency program. Transart Institute.

2009-present: Course tutor, Psychoanalysis in Art and Culture postgraduate elective (15 week course), The Glasgow School of Art.

2005-present: Lecturer (Research), The Glasgow School of Art. Read about my job in the 2010-2011 GSA Postgraduate Prospectus (pp. 38–39. PDF 510KB) and Flow Magazine, Issue 11, Autumn/Winter 2007 (p. 5. PDF 919KB).

2002-2005: Student Adviser, Postgraduate Students, University of the Arts London.

2001-2005: Research Degrees Coordinator, Wimbledon School of Art.

1999-2000: Researcher, Arts about Manchester.

1998-1999:Education Programme Officer, Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

Education

2005: Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute (C3RI), Art and Design Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University – Working title: Make me yours: the psychodynamics of seductive artworks in the gallery space. Supervisory team: Sharon Kivland, Tom Fisher, Steve Dutton.

2004-2005: Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Art, Design and Communication,Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design.

2002-2003: Supervising Research Degrees in Art, Design and Communication (SEDA accredited), Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design.

2000-2001: Master of Fine Art: Drawing, Wimbledon School of Art.

1995-2000: Licenciada en Bellas Artes (BA (Hons) Fine Art equivalent), Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain.

Exhibitions

2010: As We Speak, Experimental Film screening event as part of 2010 Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Stereo, Glasgow, 28 April 2010.

2010: Half-knowledge/half…. Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Glasgow, 12-28 April 2010.

2008: A Case of Seduction. End Gallery, Sheffield, 19–25 May 2008.

2006: Gift, Museum MAN, Liverpool, UK.

2006: Objects in Waiting, The End Gallery, Sheffield, UK

2006: Post It, Atkinson Gallery, Southport, UK

2004: Staff show, The Gallery, Wimbledon School of Art, London, UK

2003: Art in Heaven, St Mary’s Church, Brighton and Hove, UK

2003: To all the lovers and sweethearts we will never meet, House Gallery, London, UK

2001: Mission, Wimbledon School of Art, London, UK.

2001: The Invisible City, Wimbledon Library Gallery, London, UK

2001: Ausentes 2001, Sala Baracaldo, Spain.

2000: Atopia, performance exhibition, Sheffield Subway, UK.

2000: Ausentes 2000, Sala Araba, Vitoria, touring to Baracaldo and Castro, Spain.

2000: Café Tangente, Boulevard, Miranda de Ebro, Spain.

1999: Inter-national, FBAUP, Porto, Portugal.

1998: Encuentros, solo show, Mina Espazio, Bilbao, Spain.

1998: Little Works, Abanto-Ciervana, Spain.

1998: Primero de Mayo, Boulevard, Bilbao, Spain.

1998: Group show ’98. La Bolsa, Bilbao, Spain.

1997: Encerrona, Mina Espazio, Bilbao, Spain.

1997: Group show ’97, La Bolsa, Bilbao, Spain.

Publications

Book chapters

2010: Juicy Salif as a Cultish Totem. In Barbara Townley & Nic Beech (eds) Managing Creativity: Exploring the Paradox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 287-309. Download PDF (1.93MB).

Works

2004: Untitled (Mind / Body), The Mind’s Construction magazine, pilot issue, London, December 2004, pp. 26-27. Download PDF (708KB).

Articles

2010: Kissing Exposed to the Gaze. New Associations, issue 3, summer 2010, p. 15. Read PDF (1.7MB).

2010: Cities that fold in on themselves. In Persico, G. curator (2010) Urban Origami. Exhibition catalogue. PM Gallery & House, 1 July – 29 August 2010. London: Arttra, pp. 8-9. Read PDF (70KB).

2009: An artist reflects on an artist’s Biennale, in ‘Arttra’. Read PDF (520KB).

2009: Escape to Your Unconscious. In New Escapologist Magazine, Issue 2. Download PDF (822KB).

2007: The line, the look and the gaze. In Persico, G. curator (2007) Isobar. Exhibition catalogue. Fieldgate Gallery, 20 October – 11 November. London: Arttra. pp. 18-21. Read PDF (696KB).

2005: A Biennial in Venice, in ‘The Mind’s Construction Quarterly’. Read PDF (130KB).

2005: White worship: the iPod, in ‘Arttra’. Read PDF (99KB).

2005: The Edge of Emptiness; an essay on Thomas Joshua Cooper, in ‘Arttra’. Read PDF (100KB).

2004: Sophie’s World: The Delusions of the Artist, in ‘The Mind’s Construction Quarterly’. Read PDF (101KB).

2003: Skin Against Stone:Julio Medem in London, in ‘The Mind’s Construction Quarterly’ . Read PDF (53KB).

2003: National Pride: the 50th Venice Biennale, in ‘The Mind’s Construction Quarterly’ . Read PDF (58KB).

2002: Parchu (to Honour), in ‘Metamorphosis’, an exhibition of works by Jude James and Evi Chamouratidou, PINAKOQHKH MARGARH. Read PDF (438KB).

Book Reviews

2009: We take pictures, therefore we are. A review of Mike Robinson and David Picard’s The Framed World: Tourism, Tourists and Photography. Times Higher Education, No. 1,923, 19-25 November 2009, p. 50. Download PDF (488KB).

2006: Expedition. A journey around the west coast in search of tropical Scotland by Melanie Carvalho. Art & Research, Volume 1. No. 1. Winter 2006/07. Read PDF (117KB).

Conference Contributions

2010: Seduction captured. The Social Life Of Methods, ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, 6th Annual Conference, 31 August-3 September 2010, St Hugh’s College Oxford.

2010: Stranger, Seducer. Transmission: Hospitality. 1-3 July 2010, Sheffield Hallam University.

2010: Make me yours: studying the psychodynamics of seduction through works of art. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, Middlesex University, 5th June 2010.

2009: European Forum of Research Degrees in Art and Design (EUFRAD), Glasgow, 4-6 September 2009.

2008: What the artwork wants: thoughts for, against and around interpretation in art and psychoanalysis. Co-written with Sharon Kivland. Research into Practice 2008: the Problem of Interpretation. Royal Society of Arts, London, 31 October 2008. Read paper.

2008: Reflections on seduction. Architexture: Exploring textual and architectural spaces. University of Strathclyde, 15-17 April 2008. Read abstract.

2007: Mothers, daughters and cryptophores. Conference contribution: A return to Almodóvar: Roundtable discussion of his most recent film. Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society 2007 Annual Conference – Hope for Hard Times: Anxiety, Alienation and Activism, Rutgers University, 2-4 November 2007. Read Précis.

2007: When Freud Visited the Acropolis, Introduction presentation to the ‘Psychoanalysis in Doctoral Research’ panel, Rigorous Holes: Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Theory in Art and Performance Research, Chelsea College of Art, 29-30 May 2007.

2007: Juicy Salif as a cultish totem. The Discipline of Creativity: Exploring the Paradox, Session: ‘Ars longa’: establishing value. Institute for Capitalising on Creativity, RSAMD, 2 May 2007. Read abstract.

2007: Why the PhD studio? Co-written with Dr Naren Barfield. College Art Association, 95th Annual Conference, New York, 14-17 February 2007. Read abstract.

2006: Created to lead astray: Baudrillard’s seduction in contemporary artefacts. Engaging Baudrillard, Swansea University, 4-6 September 2006. Read paper.

Public Presentations

2009: Perversion within seduction. Interviewed by MFIT curator Colleen Hill. Fashion Culture Special Educational Programs. Museum at FIT, New York. 18 February 2009.

2008: Practice in my PhD. Practice in a PhD: a Workshop for Supervisors. Nottingham Trent University. 25 September 2008.

2008: That Obscure Object of Research. Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. 24 January 2008.

2005: Position paper (with Dr Malcolm Quinn, Research Coordinator, Wimbledon School of Art). Perspectives in Practice-Based Research, AHRC funded collaborative doctoral training project, Coventry University, the University of the Arts London, University of Hertfordshire, Sheffield Hallam University, Wimbledon School of Art and University of Leeds.

2004: The roll out management of skills training: experiences with different models (with Professor Stephen Flint, Director of Graduate School, University of Liverpool). Third Annual UKGrad conference ‘The future of the UK Doctorate in an International Market’.

2004: Issues in practice-led research. Surrey Institute of Art and Design.

2003: The Game of Rule Making, Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design, London.

2002: Language and Beyond, School of Performing Arts, University of Surrey.

Scholarships and awards

2007: CAA Travel Grant.

2000: The Basque Region Award for specialized study in a foreign country.

2000: Student exchange award, painting and printmaking, Sheffield Hallam University.

1999: Photography and video scholarship, Faculdade das Belas Artes do Porto, Portugal.

Research grants and awards

2007: The Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund. GSA, Total funding £1,931. Application developed with Dr Nicky Bird.

2006: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Training Award. AHRC, Total funding £10k. Application developed with Professor Naren Barfield and Stuart Evans, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

2005: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Training Award. AHRC, Total funding £10k. Application developed with Dr Malcolm Quinn and Dr Dany Nobus, Brunel University.

2005: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award. Application developed and co-authored with Hilary Baxter, Dr Robert Perks and Cathy Courtney, National Life Stories, The British Library.

External Esteem

2010-2014: Member of the AHRC’s Peer Review College.

2010: Editor, Visit Glasgow.

2009: Peer Reviewer, ESRC.

2009: Contributor, The New Escapologist.

2008-2009: Correspondent, Glasgow Vida Urbana, Soitu.es.

2007: Occasional referee, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.

2007: Occasional referee, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

2007: Editorial Advisor, Studies in Material Thinking .

2006: External Member, Research Degrees Sub-Committee, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

2006: External Member (in attendance), Higher Degrees Committee, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow.

Membership of professional bodies

2007-present: Member, Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS).

2006-2007: Member, College Arts Assotiation (CAA).

2005-present: Registered Practitioner, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).