ron laboray studio

Painting as a conceptual object in a Metamodernist period

 

One of the best aspects about making art today is the loss of a master narrative and the ability to build a new narrative, many new narratives. There is a freedom to create any discourse you wish, in any method or form one desires. I choose to make works that combine a certain level of conceptual rigor, a lighthearted humor, and the beauty of a well-crafted object. These paintings oscillate between concepts in abstract mapping, and naturalistic representation. Abstraction or realistic representation, here, are not placed in opposition to each other, but are related through actual, perceptual, and procedural distances. The paintings, as historical documents, attempt to archive common cultural effects and a momentary worldview. This practice reflects on the ability of humans to define identity and reality though sharing interpretation and invention.

 

Archaeology experience

My studio practice is conceptually driven from my experiences as an artist and archaeologist.  I make paintings, which are maps, or chart based on or follows scientific rules to organize abstract data. Within archaeology, much of the important knowledge is gained through the detritus of past culture.  The work focuses on similar type of worthless and random material for subject matter; our pop culture, junk mail, and spectacle.

 

                                                                  

“I 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. A very old man home occupied the little brick. 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 shard 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.”

Ron Laboray

 

 

Documentation:

The survey

I embrace science for a more accurate representation, a reduction of subjectivity and increase specificity.  The tactic is to employ appropriated “scientific” and sometimes Pseudo-scientific methods and rules. Cartographers and scientists use their training to create factual interpretations. Factual representations have always been questioned in painting because of the subjectivity involved in the artist’s decisions. The artist’s 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.