Cassandra Laing
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Laing was born in Melbourne in 1968.[3]
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, after her older sister Amanda and a grandmother had already died of the disease. She turned to pencil drawing because painting had become too difficult for her, using her concentration on her work as an escape from the pain of her cancer.[2]
She died on 22 September 2007, in Melbourne.[3]
Works
Laing listed Vija Celmins as an inspiration for her own work,[2] which included the following.
- "A Charmed Life" is a drawing of a charm bracelet she had shared with her sister,[2] and "Shadow Monkeys" is another fictional charm bracelet decorated with monkeys, in reference to works on the theory of evolution by Richard Dawkins.[2] "Shadow Monkeys" was a finalist for the 2006 Dobell Drawing Prize.[4]
- "Darwin's Girls" depicts a dead finch on top of a photograph of Laing and her sister as young girls. The finch is a reference to Darwin's finches, Darwin's theory of natural selection, and the inherited tendency for cancer that would eventually kill Laing.[1][2]
- "Fortune teller (it will all end in stars)" shows Laing's hands holding a paper fortune teller decorated with the Andromeda Galaxy, recalling childhood games with her sister and foretelling her own death.[2][5]
- "My Paper Ancestors" repeats the finch from "Darwin's Girls", with a paper dinosaur, a reference to "extinction on a larger scale".[2] Similarly, "Last Migration" features origami pteranodons, flying above images of Antarctica by Frank Hurley.[2]
- "No Time to Waste" is a drawing of an origami star decorated with stars.[6][7]
- "Stargazer" depicts Eleanor Arroway, the main character of the 1997 film Contact (as played by Jodie Foster) with the universe spread behind her, on a crumpled and unfolded sheet of origami paper.[5]
Regarding the themes of astronomy and origami in her works, Laing stated "I found it more comforting to think of stars being born and dying and us being dragged into that cosmic sort of force ... the less significant I felt, the more happy I was. I can sit here and fold this star, but that's about all I can control. Time runs out."[2]