MASKULL LASSERE creates a profound mood of mystery through a combination of skilled material manipulation and the juxtaposition of disparate ideas and objects. Whether expertly unleashing carved skeletons from static everyday objects or merging the refinement of a well-crafted violin with the blunt violence of an axe, he leaves us to contemplate the tension between life and death, creation and destruction. Maskull has a BFA in Visual Art and Philosophy from Mount Allison University (2001) and an MFA in Sculpture from Concordia University (2009). He is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal, Quebec, and his next solo exhibition Pendulum will open on March 6, 2015 at McClure Gallery, Visual Arts Centre, also in Montreal. He was a recent participant in the Canadian Forces War Artist Program in Afghanistan (2011), is currently in residence at The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (2014-2015) and will be an Artist-in-Residence at John Michael Kohler Arts Center's Arts/Industry Program in the summer 2015. Maskull splits his time between Montreal and New York.
OtherPeoplesPixels:
Many works rely heavily on your impressive carving skills. Early works
reveal the bones of animals and humans in industrially-produced objects
like hangers, newspapers, headboards and tools. Could you talk about the
nature of carving as a sculptural process?
Maskull Lasserre:
I think a lot about the humility of carving, about the simplicity of it
and about how honest it is. There is no magic, no technology, no
disguise to this kind of subtractive gesture. Because it is so plain, it
has this extraordinary potential to reveal unexpected truths about the
materials with which it converses.
OPP: Could you give us some examples of the materials you have carved from and what is particular about each one?
ML:
I chose to carve materials I want to explore and understand as
matter—as opposed to form. I have carved into a variety of objects from
books to boulders, musical instruments to tree trunks. Each is unique in
how it handles physically and in the potential it holds as symbolic or
conceptual gesture when carved. My favorite materials to carve are those
that are difficult and obscure. The process of negotiating between the
material and the carved form is often what makes the finished piece
interesting, and it is definitely what holds my attention during the
process.
OPP: Whether it is combining a violin with a rifle scope, a grenade with a music box or turning a blade into a string instrument,
you repeatedly conflate the tools of the disparate fields of carpentry,
the military and music. There's something jarring about the
juxtaposition of violence and danger with the refined skill of
woodworking and music. What's the connection for you?
ML: I
think that we understand things by their edges, by that contrasting
line between what they are and what they are not. By conflating
disparate elements—whether a technique and a material, a material and
motif, or any other physical or metaphorical element of the work—the
contrast is sharpened between the characters at play. Combining
contradictory or unexpected subjects is like mixing elements from the
periodic table. By testing the space between them, the nature of each
can be observed and explored.
OPP: In 2010, you participated in the Canadian Forces War Artist Program in Afghanistan. Tell us about this unique program and how this experience changed your work.
ML:
The Canadian Forces Artist Program is a a voluntary program where
artists of various disciplines are placed in the context of the Canadian
forces in order to experience inspiring work representative of the
forces' activities. I spent two weeks in Afghanistan where I accompanied
members of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry Regiment of the
Canadian Forces and the Afghan National Army on various activities in
and around Kandahar and the forward operating base in Masum Ghar. The experience really defies a short explanation.
It was both an incredible challenge and a privilege to share
experiences with the members of the service. It is something that I
continue to resolve through both the work that deals directly with this
subject and my broader practice in general. The consequences of this
experience continue to uncoil through my work. In Afghanistan, I
encountered instances of the Absolute—something that is greatly missing
in normal, everyday life. My work is often a counterweight to my
experience. Since my time in Afghanistan, a new weight has been added to
it. I feel a new sense of necessity and responsibility for the life I
get to live.
OPP: Could you talk about your use of trigger mechanisms in Progress Trap (Chair No. 1) (2014), the musical grenades from Beautiful Dreamer (2014) and Mechanical Equation for Determining Meaning given Mass and Velocity (2011). Are these works meant to be activated by the viewer or simply thought about?
ML:
The potential suggested by these objects is much more important than
the actual release of any of the mechanisms you mentioned. There is a
sense of agency in suggestion that is lost when fully explained.
Suspense is often more powerful and sustained than a simple fright, and
an inference can be much more interesting—even more accurate—than an
explicitly articulated fact.
It is important that each of these
objects does function in the way it suggests, but this mechanical truth
is only necessary to infuse each piece with the true potential that
provokes the viewer into imagining the mechanism's release. The work
itself is unfinished until this process is invoked in the viewer. While
the physical potential of each mechanism can only be released once, the
viewer can imagine endless variations to an implied event, and through
this experience, many different completions of the same object.
OPP: This summer you will be an Artist-in-Residence at John Michael Kohler Arts Center's Arts/Industry program. Any plans for what you will work on while there? Which facilities are you most excited to take advantage of?
ML:
I will be working primarily in the Foundry (Iron works) of the Kohler
Co. Facility. It is a rare opportunity to have access to a resource like
this, and I am excited to see how its potential translates into my
work. Because I have never experienced working in an industrial context
of this scale, I am cautious about putting too fine a point on the type
of work I hope to make. I imagine some exploration of weight and mass
and multiple iterations of cast objects would be a good starting point.
Like most new experiences, the more open I am to the potential they
reveal in the moment, the better the work will be as a result.
Featured Artist Interviews are conducted by Chicago-based, interdisciplinary artist Stacia Yeapanis. When she’s not writing for OPP, Stacia explores the relationship between repetition, desire and impermanence in cross-stitch embroideries, remix video, collage and impermanent installations. She is an instructor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where received her MFA in 2006, and was a 2012-2013 Mentor-in-Residence at BOLT in Chicago. Recent exhibitions include solo shows I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (2013) at Klemm Gallery, Siena Heights University (Adrian, Michigan) and Everything You Need is Already Here (2014) at Heaven Gallery in Chicago, as well as Here|Now, a two-person exhibition curated by MK Meador and also featuring the work of Jason Uriah White, at Design Cloud in Chicago (2014). Most recently, Stacia created When Things Fall Apart, a durational, collage installation in the Annex Gallery at Lillstreet Art Center. Closing reception guests were invited to help break down the piece by pulling pins out of the wall.