Laura Beaumont

Laura Beaumont uses the pre-existing media of antiquarian books to explore the dark subtext of human interaction. 

With the aid of a scalpel, she brings to life her own creations by ruthlessly slicing and combining them with the working parts of someone else’s. By a process of deconstruction and reconstruction she creates small vignettes within the pages of old books that are both bizarre and unsettling.

Laura’s personal obsession with creating narrative scenarios in small format combines her boundless love for plastic figurines, her passion for words and her day job in animation. She is an Emmy Award winning animation writer who studied Time Based Media at The Cass London. She has created hundreds of hours of television, written and illustrated lots of books and is a pointless answer on Pointless. 

The centrepiece of her recent solo exhibition - The Secrets of the Cut – was a working train set installation. The stories and characters that were depicted in the trainset could be found within the prints and pieces that surrounded it, either as a continuation, or a pre-cursor. Sometimes dark, sometimes funny but always intriguing.

Enchanting, dark and salacious art. An emotionally charged roller-coaster treasure hunt for adults, plus a train wreck. The show absolutely tickled all my fancies.    

- Valerio Martinez

Funny, sometimes raunchy, but always surprising, Laura’s work is a delight to behold. Like mini vignettes taking place within what is a kind of proscenium arch, the plastic figures often cheekily subvert their quaint titles and turn them on their head. 

- Jane Clinton – Camden New Journal

BAA AWARD

This year she was chosen to create a prize for the British Animation Awards.