Lauren Kelly

I most often work with analogue photography and Procreate, but have previously worked in oil/acrylic paint, digital photography, collage and print.

I've always a had a great love for the colour pink, and my interest increased when I came across the term 'rosy retrospection', as I could literally communicate this way of viewing the world around us by using the colour. Following more in depth research into the colour, its history and various social and political meanings around the world, I found that the following quote reconciled my love of pink and the subject matter of my work. I found it in an article from 2017, exploring how the shade 'millennial pink' became very culturally popular in the Western world at the time.

"Millennial pink, or “Tumblr pink”, as it is also known, represents a kind of ironic prettiness, or post-prettiness. It’s a way to be pretty while retaining your intellectual detachment. It’s a wish that prettiness could de-problematised." (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2017/mar/22/millennial-pink-is-the-colour-of-now-but-what-exactly-is-it)

Through my practise I explore themes of nostalgia, rosy retrospection, and previously hedonism and youth culture. I invite people in to self-reflect in the way I reflect on my own experiences, past and present, merging them together as if they were all happening at the same time.