Lou Barker
BA (Hons) Fine Art and Art History
![Lou Barker](https://degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk/2023/images/avatars/a9b88756717d781c0114b180e99ab426.jpg)
Louise Barker is an installation artist, working with graphic design in Manchester. Embedded in their practice are allusions to advertisement, contemporary pop-culture, and the whimsical and taboo contemplations which surround this. Louise’s interest in typography has formed a foundation for her subsequent creation of fun, roguish vinyl-cuts.
She creates environments which embody British current affairs. Through their practice, a viewer is immersed in an uncanny realm, filled with whimsical feelings and thoughts. The work provides a satirical perspective on events which resonate with an intergenerational, contemporary society. By working with installation and public art, Louise’s works bombard a viewer with ideas which are perceived inappropriate and frivolous for a gallery context. She encourages her viewers to question the role of humour within the gallery and how this transpires to everyday reality. Louise creates an experience which delves into a narrative that, on the surface appears vibrant, punchy, and humorous, but contains politically-aggravated and unsettling indications of war and global crises. Her lived-in installations contribute to this world which we all know too well.