John Lawrence with vocals by Mavis July,
Stur te vant, 2020

John Lawrence is a Nottingham-based artist working across video installation, sound, writing, digital image and expanded forms of publishing.

Filmed directly from a laptop screen, and combining footage with found sound or recordings the artist has made himself – in this case a recording of his daughter singing – Stur te vant is one of a series of ‘video sketches’ made late at night after a day of lockdown work/parenting/homeschooling as a gesture towards the creative act of making work, rather than work itself.

As living versions of Warhol’s screen printed flowers are live-streamed from his graveside only to be filmed again, reality and its reproduction becomes layered and distorted. Sturtevant famously replicated the screenprint of these flowers so the reference evokes the increasingly blurred lines between our real and virtual lives.

@johnlawrenceisanartist