A Healing Dream: Laura Footes' poetic exploration of illness and recovery

Carl Freedman Gallery

17th November 2024 – 16th February 2025

Birmingham-born Laura Footes' latest solo exhibition A Healing Dream, at Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate, is a beautiful exploration of the interplay between illness and healing, both within the human body and the spaces we inhabit. Her paintings capture the listless, languishing state of convalescence, reflecting her personal experience with chronic illness since childhood. Footes channels these struggles into delicate, surreal paintings that resonate with emotional depth and introspection. 

The series of works on display was created at TKE studios, a professional artist studio space housing a residency run by Dame Tracey Emin. Laura Footes was one of the first artists to be offered a studio space here; this body of work is the result of being able to create in a dedicated studio environment with new resources and vision, producing work on a larger scale. The exhibition is curated by Tracey Emin, who has been an avid champion and mentor during Footes’ career. Emin's influence is evident in the thematic depth and emotional resonance of the works on display. The artist’s works and story resonated with Emin, who has had her own battle with chronic illness as well as cancer.

Footes creates surreal illusory environments in her paintings by juxtaposing ghost-like figures against architectural or interior backgrounds, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. This approach invites viewers to interact with the works slowly, with subtle layers revealing themselves each time the work is observed. There is a palpable sense of solitude and soul-searching. Figures appear detached and withdrawn, wilting in bed while a separate world takes place outside. Being confronted by Footes' paintings conjures painfully familiar feelings in anyone who has had a brush with chronic illness or prolonged period of recovery. 

Footes' creative process is influenced by memories of places she has lived, her various periods of fluctuating health, and daydreams. Her work delves into deep inner realms, using layers of colour to depict how we inhabit layers of time and space. The shadowy cinematic lighting in the works is evocative of film noir, which the artist was fond of watching during her convalescences.

The twenty works in the show are divided amongst the gallery’s three rooms, a mixture of large scale works mixed with smaller pieces, drawing the viewer's eye across the room. Bed In The Woods is one of these works: A solitary metal bed frame, devoid of a mattress, sits in the middle of a forest, with  hints of reflected light and scattered greenery creating an otherworldly atmosphere. I enjoy lingering over these miniature paintings, they are like an intimate peek into the emotions one cycles through on a daily basis when navigating chronic illness – grief, joy, rage.

Foote’s ability to paint by channelling from memory and daydreams is particularly well represented in her work titled Bina Gardens. This painting portrays an urban nighttime scene comprising three sections, blending elements of dreamlike intimacy with a cityscape. The elevated perspective puts the viewer into a floating position, as if we are drifting across the canvas. At the left is a narrow street lined with street lights extending into the background. The street is painted in cool shades of blue, evoking a sense of mystery and quiet solitude. The central focus is the facade of a brick building, where multiple windows reveal glimpses of human activity bathed in soft, glowing light. These interior spaces add a sense of almost voyeuristic curiosity. Footes uses a mix of soft brushstrokes, blurred edges and luminous colour transitions, giving the piece a sleepy quality. The curtains billow in one of the windows, contributing to the movement and flow within the otherwise still evening.

Frida Kahlo, the renowned Mexican artist, lived with significant physical pain throughout her life. She used her painting to both express and overcome this, and was quoted to have said: "I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint."

Although I wasn’t familiar with Footes’ work before, as soon as I saw the paintings my gut instinct informed me: “this person has been through a chronic health journey”. It was like having my own snail-paced recovery from debilitating fatigue externalised onto canvas. Ultimately however, Footes’ paintings are universally relatable because they inspire us to embrace our own vincibility. In A Healing Dream, Footes successfully transforms personal adversity into a poignant universal commentary on the fragile nature of the human condition. A Healing Dream becomes a profound visual ode to healing in slowness, ensuring that the exhibition lingers in the mind long after you leave the gallery.

Ksenya Blokhina, Copyright Manager 

A Healing Dream is on view at Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate until 16 February 2025. Laura Footes In Conversation with Tracey Emin takes place on Saturday 18 January at 12:00PM.