Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Maskull Lasserre’s Improbable Wooden Sculptures

Calgary-born artist Maskull Lasserre creates improbable sculptures that defy their materials and challenge the viewer’s expectations. His "Schrodinger's Wood," made from Ash tree trunk, a chain hoist and gantry, appears as a rope tethering one piece to another, as rendered by the artist. And even when the truth of its material is revealed, the piece still offers tension in its “breaking.”

Calgary-born artist Maskull Lasserre creates improbable sculptures that defy their materials and challenge the viewer’s expectations. His “Schrodinger’s Wood,” made from Ash tree trunk, a chain hoist and gantry, appears as a rope tethering one piece to another, as rendered by the artist. And even when the truth of its material is revealed, the piece still offers tension in its “breaking.”

“These objects are designed to pause at the brink of completion,” the artist says, in a statement, “to preserve a mystery, to hold a choice, and in so doing avert the stagnation that belongs to the fully-real. Like a tool waiting for an operator or a data set for a theory, these pieces anticipate the viewer’s presence to catalyze their resolution. Reconciled in the medium of through, my work is offered in a perpetual state of becoming, held open for a viewer to inhabit and explore.”

The artist’s work has been featured in major exhibitions at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City and Banksy’s famed Dismaland. He’s been a visiting artist at Harvard, MIT, and other institutions.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Lana Crooks uses hand-dyed wool to craft the insides and outsides of the natural world. From a distance, these pieces appear to constructed of fur and bone. But upon closer inspection, the artist’s meticulous blending of wool, found objects, and other fabrics comes into focus. Crooks sometimes uses actual specimens from Chicago's natural history museum collections for inspiration in making her “faux specimens and soft curiosities.”
Jason Borders's carved animal skulls are morbidly fascinating. While the ornate, lace-like patterns he engraves into the bone draw viewers in with their beauty, it's easy to become repulsed when you truly think about the origins of his materials. "A large part of what I do involves a familiarization with death," he says. "My belief is that, as painful as it can be, looking directly at death helps you to live your life with intent and purpose." While, in Western culture, we tend to remove death as far away from ourselves as possible, perhaps a more holistic way of thinking about it is to view it as part of our existence. In using animal remains to create something new, Borders' work reminds viewers of the cyclical nature of life.
Erika Sanada's canine sculptures are both endearing and unnerving. There's something sweet about her ceramic puppies (featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31) despite their zombie eyes and pale, hairless skin. The dogs play, wrestle, and cuddle, but the ambiguous details in each sculpture make it possible to interpret their gestures as either tender or malicious, or perhaps a bit of both. Sanada began creating these creatures as a way of coping with anxiety. She says they represent dark elements of her mind she's had to tame. The latest installment of her ongoing, autobiographical body of work will debut in her upcoming solo show, "Odd Things: Daydreaming," which opens November 28 at Antler Gallery in Portland and runs through December 31.
Ever wonder what happened to those plastic bags you recycled? Some of them may have ended up in Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno's latest installation. "Becoming Aerosolar" is Saraceno's debut exhibition in Austria, currently on view at the 21er Haus art museum in Vienna through August 30th. The exhibit highlights a series of sculptures and objects inspired by how we experience our environment - but it is Saraceno's "flying museum" on display that takes this exploration to new heights.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List