Lauren McLaughlin

Through the lens of my own experiences as a working class woman and mother, my work interrogates systems of power, visibility and care through collage, text, and repurposed everyday domestic materials. My research has focussed on topics including maternal mental health, reproductive healthcare, unpaid domestic labour and economic inequality, highlighting the injustices of the crisis of care and the lack of caring infrastructures in our capitalist society. 

My participatory projects explore how these failing systems affect mothers, carers and their communities: economically, emotionally, and culturally. Recent projects have included Moanifesto; a collaborative project which highlighted the invisible struggles of the single mother artist, Just a mum?; an installation and exhibition created with young mums from an underserved area of North Edinburgh, and most recently Still Waiting to be Held; a participatory commission developed in response to working with new m/others in Aberdeen.

As founder and director of Spilt Milk Gallery CIC (2018-2025)—a social enterprise supporting artists who identify as m/others—I advocated for visibility and care within the arts. I now advocate for access to quality creative education in my role as lecturer and Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of the Highlands & Islands.