Location
Outer Spaces, Unit E, Shiprow,

Aberdeen, AB11 5BY

Preview
5-7pm, Friday 28^th February 2025

Free - ticket required

Book your ticket

Exhibition open

11am-4pm, Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd March 2025

Free, drop-in, no ticket required

By appointment

Monday 3^rd March - Sunday 16^th March 2025

Please contact imogen@outerspaces.org to arrange

a viewing.

Access

The building has level access to the exhibition space. A temporary ramp will provide access to the reception space and accessible toilets.

Outer Spaces presents IN OUR SPACES, an exhibition of work by three Aberdeen-based visual artists Lauren McLaughlin, Maria Muruaga and Kirsty Russell.

This exhibition is the outcome of a six-month Outer Spaces commissioning project which highlights the complexities of hidden mental health challenges in society today, inspired by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s 2024 theme IN/VISIBLE. The selected artists received a £3,000 fee, access to a large Outer Spaces studio/exhibition space and support from the Outer Spaces team.

The artists were invited to host workshops with local communities to foster social connection through collaborative artistic practice and inspire the development of a new artwork to be presented as part of this exhibition.

Outer Spaces supports visual artists working in the context of vacant and disused spaces as sites of research and experimentation. These commissions support the professional development of three socially engaged artists and the communities they work with in the city.

This project is supported by Creative Funding from Aberdeen City Council.

Selected Artists

Kirsty Russell is an artist based in Aberdeen. Her work is concerned with social and cultural systems of support and the structures that underpin and sustain them. With reference to the women in her family who work in healthcare, she often returns to the physical and emotional weight of their work and to the repetitive nature of maintenance.

For this commission Russell is working in conversation with an embroidery group that formed in response to their collective witnessing of world events. Communities have always gathered over textile work and this body of work is inspired by these creative, social settings, and their potential for storytelling and connection. These shared acts of making offer spaces of care, resilience, and solidarity—demonstrating how creativity can support mental health through collective action.

Lauren McLaughlin is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based in Aberdeen. Her work explores the undervalued and overlooked experiences of motherhood, caregiving, and gendered labour through a feminist lens.

In developing work for this project, McLaughlin engaged with mothers and caregivers in local communities through a series of creative workshops. She invited participants to reflect on their daily lives by making lists- ranging from the mundane to deeply emotional. These lists capture the multifaceted roles of mothers/caregivers and the often-overwhelming mental load they bear, reflecting their tasks, desires, and frustrations. McLaughlin has translated these personal reflections into a large-scale blanket. This textile work serves as both a metaphor for the emotional and physical labour of motherhood and as a tangible expression of the burdens that are often carried in silence.

Frequently addressing subjects which are still considered taboo such as childbirth, reproductive rights, postpartum depression, and economic inequality, McLaughlin seeks to spark critical conversations around the value structures present in our capitalist society.

Recent Work

Lauren is the founder of Spilt Milk Gallery CIC; a social enterprise whose mission is to support the work of artists who identify as m/others. Lauren graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, in 2012, and MA Applied Arts & Social Practice from Queen Margaret University, in 2021. Recent group exhibitions include: The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Bayfront Park, Sarasota, Florida; Open Eye Gallery Liverpool, and AIR Gallery, Manchester. Lauren has been commissioned to write for several publications including We Can’t Afford to Work for Love (Axisweb, UK 2024), An Artist and A Mother(Demeter Press, Canada 2023).

Artist’s website

Maria Muruaga’s work is rooted in the belief that art can create spaces for connection, shared experience, and collective understanding. Having lived and worked in various countries, and now based in Aberdeen, her practice reflects a journey through displacement, identity, and healing. 

For this project, Muruaga invited participants to work with porcelain, encouraging them to slow down, breathe, and be present while working with this delicate material. This mindful approach transforms the act of making into a tool for grounding and mental well-being. The pieces, produced collectively by workshop participants, form part of the larger installation, where they come together- reflecting how individuals are ultimately interconnected. 

Working with both photography and clay, Muruaga explores the tactile nature of both mediums. Clay is a material that can be moulded into delicate forms while retaining its strength. This contrast between fragility and resilience mirrors the artists own experiences, as well as the broader, often invisible mental health struggles that many face.