Lawton Hall: A True Artiste ! ! !

I was inspired by Lawton's tales of life in music and art after college graduation. He explained that he felt his time studying at Lawrence University provided him with a space to experiment and served as a time to interact with others and 'make connections' with people that have benefited him in his life now. Feeling down about academia lately, I found some optimism in his contentedness with what he learned here.

Now, to the art. My favorite of the projects he shared with us today (although they all struck me in a good place) was his installation, This Place is No Place, 2013.

I thought that his use of visual and auditory randomness were most effective. He said that a poetry emerged from these unplanned combinations (spanning 12 hours) which I have been thinking about a lot lately. Especially when using someone else's images, any real concrete connection with the artist is removed, save their hand in assembly. This project is an example of a situation in which the artist is an 'everyday' person (just like non-artists!) who experiments with ideas that they are currently most interested in but still figuring out and expressing thoughts and their own ideas through art.

from Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15

 

 

from Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15

Similarly, his series Postcards from the Anthropocene, 2014-15 connects unrelated images and forces them to be taken in new light as if they were always meant to be together. In this way, I think he shows his interest in shaping a place–that is, forming an ideological object that exists just out of reach through the process of altering physical objects.

Lastly, his compositions with Holy Sheboygan! and other pieces of music he's written were refreshing and interesting. He comes from a world of music with a formal background, but importantly, he builds upon what he has learned and innovates his own techniques of art.

This blog post was bad and I will mull it over some more and probably post a better one.

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Lawton: Vimeo | bandcamp | Sensorium