artist statement

I recently found myself in the position of changing an actual public map. I was working as an archaeologist in a research program. This particular day a colleague and I were researching the prehistoric mound culture of this region. Using historical maps as well as written accounts we were certain that we had stumbled upon a considerably large mound that had yet to be recorded or named. Most large mounds have been recorded for nearly a century. We visited the site which, to the untrained eye, is nothing more than a red brick house on a rise. Even with our prior knowledge, the mound was nearly indiscernible. There was little left of the ancient earthwork; our culture was eclipsing the past. The little brick home was occupied by a very old man. While explaining the house was something of an heirloom (passed down through three generations), he began to unzip an old shaving case. He presented my colleague with a ground greenstone celt and from the exact period which confirmed our mound suspicions. The ax head was polished smooth from use, measuring roughly eighteen centimeters and its weight was greater than one might imagine. It had been found not ten feet from the house. Later in the day came a surface survey. Combing the ground looking for artifacts, I found the other important factor that would ultimately augment the map. I bent to retrieve the small sherd of sand tempered pottery, amazed to find it at the surface, even after eight hundred years. We finalized our analysis, collecting core samples from the mound; the map could now receive its alteration. In the end, we named the mound after the very old man. I had a hand in changing many more maps that year and every time I had a special feeling I could see the effect of many cultures on the same place. I could measure and represent it. I could change the perception of history.
A more accurate representation, a reduction of subjectivity and increase specificity result from employing "scientific" methods. Cartographers and scientists use their training to create truthful interpretations. Factual representations have always been questioned in painting because of the subjectivity involved in the artist's decisions. The artists decisions lie between the subject and the result becoming more of an opinion. Science (the process) is given credence as the scientist acts as facilitator. My distance in process is a measure to enforce a similar unbiased result. For example, The Law of Superposition holds that what comes first is on bottom. This "rule" allows me to avoid the decisions about formal appearance and helps organize paint application. The fact that the plastic paint is specifically measured and poured through funnels and constructed jigs is another conceptual limitation on personal influence.
My paintings are in the form of maps and charts and attempt to archive cultural effect. Popular culture disseminates information that leads us to believe Metropolis and Gotham are the homes of Superheroes. Through similar means, we come to see any town bearing the name of Springfield as a potential residence of The Simpsons. Many locations enjoy a simultaneous existence in both fiction and reality. Beliefs generated by invented identities influence our perception of "the real". Imagined identity can also be imposed on place through reoccurring phenomena like the Super Bowl, World Fairs, or a papal visit. These events, though short lived and migrant, create an atmosphere of close connection and in this, the chosen locations will share in the legacy and identity that is lent through hosting these various spectacles.
In my most recent work I use official data of the Indianapolis 500 to create bar charts of the experience. The colors of the cars (usually indicative of the sponsor), and the order of the cars at start and finish are researched to create a chart or table. I am using these devices to measure a singular but reoccurring event that affects the same location annually. The charts and tables become through an emulation and representation of "scientific" rules, such as the Law of Superposition. I have appropriated a specific system of signs to represent my collected data. No one car or driver receives special treatment, every racer is included, and winner and looser are equally undistinguished. The information (race data) is collected primarily from the internet and the official Indy site. I have also a new series of brain diagrams. These brain diagrams represent the direct effect of pop culture of the psyche. Using paired characterizations like Heckle and Jeckel, Speed Racerand RacerX, Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, I can discuss these as models of the brain itself. These are influential in the basic formations of the right and left brain. Other sources discussed in these brain-scapes are free flowing information like junkmail and television. Once again pairing effected place with affecting property.

Shiny and plastic like their subject of pop culture, the materials used in the paintings are metaphorically linked to the subject. Plastic represents not only the nature of the ever changing pop phenomena but also product endorsement or corporate logo. The slick speed of the automobile lacquers is representative of the nature of the event itself, the race cars and their technology. The painted surface (the dimensions of a flat screen television or a more scientific square) is actually a hard panel sold commercially as sign board, teasing the notion that painting and science are connected as systems of signs.

Superheroes, cartoons, sporting events, and vacation are ready made signs that handle complex universal ideas such as "truth" or "the real". Superman determines what is good and what is evil, not allowing religion or society to determine these things for him. He uses a reason that is independent of the modern values of society or religion. The Simpson family represents the good and bad in the everyman, while testing the newest cultural morals and beliefs. Vacations, specifically camping, condone the separation of nature from culture. This promotes the use of ideas such as natural and synthetic, real and unreal. This works to the same degree with theme parks; an intentional false reality in an actual location. Television transmits "live" or "true" representations which of course are not live but synthesized; this increases our tolerance for mediated and corporately funded truths.

These locations, events, and ideas will be the research ground for future social scientists. These innocuous aspects of pop culture are the fossilization of present beliefs and attitudes in respect to our time. My archive then will have future importance for both science and art by quantifying and measuring this time.

Ron Laboray