William Lamson

June 27 – September 7, 2013

This exhibition will include recent videos, photographs, and a site-specific installation that center on Lamson’s ongoing quest to reconcile two opposing views— the artist seemingly in calm control of his environment and, alternately, struggling mightily against the forces of nature. In 2010 Lamson’s playful and strenuous interactions with his environment took him to the Mojave Desert to produce A Line Describing the Sun. Traversing the landscape in a rolling contraption equipped with a mirror and a Fresnel lens, the artist burned a 366-foot arced line into the dried desert mud. More recently, in his video projection Action for the Delaware, the artist struggles to create the illusion of walking on water with the aid of a crudely constructed hidden platform. Lamson's investigations call to mind the efforts of earthwork artists in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, but with a decidedly anti-heroic and absurdist twist. For this exhibition, Lamson will attempt to redirect the flow of light on the museum’s second floor by camouflaging a wall of windows that measures 24 by 60 feet and includes over 500 panes of glass.

Last Light
Commissioned by Storm King for the Light and Landscape show, 2012.
Materials: film foil, steel, wire.
Dimensions: 4‘x190’