Even the Flesh Is a Mask: Reflections in the Cobbled Spookhouse of Laure Drogoul

Excerpt from our friend Rupert Wondolowski’s ongoing “Saints & Haints of Baltimore: A Secret History of The Baltimore Underground, 1984-2014, Hidden in the Drawer of a Dust Mote” with added visuals and links from BoL.

Even the Flesh Is a Mask; Reflections In The Cobbled Spookhouse of Laure Drogoul

By Rupert Wondolowski (shatteredwig.blogspot.com, 11-9-2014)

…no history of the Baltimore arts underground of the last 30 years would be worth its cyber space if it didn’t contain praise to Laure Drogoul, one of the most single-minded hardest working visionaries. I wrote this piece for as an introduction for the booklet accompanying Laure’s incredible art show “Follies Predicaments and Conundrums” [January 30-March 9, 2009] that was at MICA, hosted by another Baltimore art visionary who I met while having panic attacks working at Kinko’s in the early ’90s – Gerald Ross.

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“Follies, Predicaments and Other Conundrums Opening” (YouTube)

One of the many superhuman skills that Laure Drogoul possesses – the power of invisibility luckily not being one of them – is the ability to lift phone conversation to the realm of high art. You could be on your way out the door to the dentist’s with an inflamed molar when you receive her siren call – the next thing you know hours have passed and your brain has tunneled through miles of subterranean neon brilliance and you suddenly know everything about an arcane insect species of whose existence you were previously ignorant. Plus, when you finally awaken to the “real” world, the one at your fingertips, you realize your molar no longer aches. When you excitedly run to the mirror to take a look at it you discover you now have the enormous chompers of a beaver.

It was during one such call, when we were discussing the poignantly strange and melancholic stories of the British author Robert Aickman, that Laure said, “There is a thin line between neurosis and enchantment.” This not only summed up Aickman’s work neatly, but, I also felt it was a key to the heart of Laure’s art.

Continue reading “Even the Flesh Is a Mask” at shatteredwig.blogspot.com.

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Related Links:

www.lauredrogoul.com

Cultofmarms.org

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