Graduate Directory 2011

Lauren Harden

Yale, US / 2010

Graphics

'Without the discipline of assignments, making work became overwhelming' says Harden, both of her fine art degree and the subsequent realization that she might not want to become an 'artist'. Continuing on to her MFA in graphic design, she muses 'I like working within constraints. When the possibilities are endless I become paralyzed. When there is structure, I have something to push and pull against'. Having bagged both the Bradbury Thompson Memorial prize and the Schickle-Collingwood Prize at Yale, Harden's final project was a thesis set out within a book. Wanting it to be as unfixed as possible but bound at the same time, the resulting masterpiece was, in Harden's words, 'this incredibly over-complicated project where each page folds open to poster size and can overlap and recombine with other pages'.

Most inspired by: Joan Didion. Marcel Duchamp, Sheila de Bretteville, French New Wave, Joy Division, and lots of photographers.

harden.lauren@gmail.com