Laura Grace Chipley
Laura Grace Chipley is a Queens based artist who deals with the social and environmental impact of energy extraction via film and site specific interventions.
One of Chipley’s recent works was a collaborative project with Hannah Zanowski. The collaboration’s result was a ten minute long video entitled Monster in the Closet. The video follows oceanographer Hannah Zanowski as she explores the Southern Ocean’s impact on regulating Earth’s climate and inspects how humans can impact the farthest reaches of the Earth. The illustrations for the video is comprised of hundreds of drawings created by NYSCI Museum goers.
Another one of Chipley’s works, Remote Voyages, looks at Newton Creek- one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States. According to the website, “The Newtown Creek is a Superfund site: a dumping ground for industrial waste and raw sewage for over 150 years and the site of the largest urban oil spill in the nation.”
Each boat made a voyage through the creek and recorded its passage. In the exhibit these recordings were projected in
front of the boat, each containing materials that were picked up during the trip down the creek. These materials are supposed to represent the creeks past, present, and future. The collection of boats is referred to as The Newton Creek Armada and was a collaboration between Chipley, Nathan Kensinger, and Sarah Nelson Wright.
