School of Fine Art Sculpture & Environmental Art
Laura G. MacAulay
“Have you ever walked down a busy street and felt all eyes on you? Then you look someone in the eye and noticed it’s not you they are looking at. It’s your hand embraced in your girlfriend’s.You want to act a certain way to stop the staring but how do you act? It’s not the same as being alone with her. Safe. My life every day. This is where the research starts. Capturing those safe moments between two sapphic women. Dealing with life.The special moment that most couples take for granted. Personal moments. We live our life like the rest of the world but more reserved. Keeping ourselves safe. Developing ideas inspired by queer artists before me. Looking at the different expressions of oppressive love through the decades.”
MacAulay is a Glasgow based film and photography artist, focusing on personal relationships, the queer community and gender. Their work delves into pushing boundaries, whether personal or that of others, while maintaining a safe space with trust and comfort. Through the lens, they capture a silent, peaceful protest of love and life of queer relationships and queer hardships within society. This is what queer love looks like.
Reflections of Her (2025)
Slight nudity content
‘Reflections of Her’ is an 8 minute film piece which focuses on the articulation of love through the camera lens. It’s not always easy to express how you see someone, or your love for someone through words but, the eyes never lie. Therefore, in this film, the camera lens are our eyes, they capture how we see each other. Every look in a mirror captured. Every touch on skin captured. It’s safe. It’s normal. It’s an inside into the relationship of a queer couple and how the emotions are never fake.
Frames are shot from different angles as I wanted the gaze to be authentic to where Louise or I are positioned in that specific moment, for example, standing in the door frame which Louise is in the bathroom.
The mirror reflections within my work are an important piece. They create a view that cannot always be seen. Reflections created the opposite site to what we are looking at and this can show the true focus on a person. Mirrors never lie and so, I invited the viewer to view the piece through the mirror as a reflection. Looking down at the floor creates a Birdseye view of the piece, almost like the viewer is observing us from above. It’s creates a third gaze of the piece, which will be different from Louise and I.
Six Hours (2024)
‘Six Hours’ is a photography series that focused on testing the boundaries of comfort, feeling safe and trust. I asked my partner Louise some questions over the space of 6 hours. A number of them were very personal and some were superficial. I documented her reactions to them and her change in emotions throughout the questioning. I wanted to see the raw truth in her reactions, from discomfort to happy and catch them on camera. These emotions were a true representation of the trust and vulnerability of our relationship and how photographs can capture the true emotions of a person if they are not directed to ‘smile’ or ‘pose’. I took away the ‘normal’ photograph.
I gave Louise no direction, I simply clicked the camera while having the conversations with her, resulting in a real reaction. As well as the visual change in her body language I could also hear the effect as she answered the questions. The setting was in her bedroom, a small space, imitate and comfortable for her. I gave her full reign on where she wanted to be filmed.
Tracing (2025)
After ‘Reflections of Her’ , I decided to take away the colour of the film away all together and view the lines that make up the frames. I thought the warm tones and colours were responsible for the intimacy of the film but, after these drawings I realised that the closeness and intimacy are still present within the frames without the colour. In using continuous line, it brings back the intimacy of the work and creates a new viewpoint.
(This is an ongoing project)
