UK based Laura Tonojan is uncomfortable with the moniker ‘artist’. Her lack of traditional training and theory has meant that a lot of her work has been more of a personal study of sorts. She is less a commander of a form, more an explorer of technique and through her life, explore she has.

She has spent most of her life traveling Europe, performing music whilst absorbing and experiencing different ways of life. The nomadic lifestyle exposed her to all kinds of cities from which she draws inspiration for Shapeshifter and Phallusfobia.

Never one to parade her work in the traditional sense, fashion was an outlet for Laura as a young girl to create works of art with practical connotation although she would not usually describe the work as ‘casual’.

“I was coming back to making clothes throughout my life, and gradually it turned out that fashion is the place for every skill I’ve got. And I took that turn and a lifetime to find answers.”

Her playful and inspiring work often depicts small or powerless individuals in worlds they wish to hide from and so in a way we might view the clothes as armor or defense from forces we cannot control. Her work continues to offer personal glimpses of a traveler who is still searching for answers.

J.R.