By Taryn Plumb
Harvard, MA – “Moby Dick”: Herman Melville’s
classic tale of obsession. Adored by academics and mere lovers of the English
word; abhorred by others forced to dissect and regurgitate it in high school
and college.
But for Greg Lookerse? It’s not only an
inspiration for art — it is art.
For his solo exhibition, “Literary Soil,” the
California-born artist tore pages from his copy of the 1851 classic, then
smeared them with pigments to simulate roiling waves or thick oil slicks, and
grew salt crystals atop them to create a briny, crusty sensation.
The end result is a tactile representation of
the written word.
“Overall the show for me is about the roots
and ideas that come from reading,” said Lookerse, “and so each piece is somehow
tied to a specific book or story or legend or myth.”
The exhibit will be on display at Fruitlands
Museum in Harvard, Mass., through August 20; the work was crafted during
Lookerse’s 2017 artist-in-residence at both Fruitlands and The Old Manse in
Concord.
Lookerse, who describes himself as a “reader
who does not know how to write,” creates complex, thought-provoking pieces that
intertwine elements of classic literature and religious practices, and explore
what he calls the “incongruities” between the physical and metaphysical planes.
“A huge influence of my work is looking at
western art history and the ways in which religion and philosophy intermix,”
said the artist. “I’m trying to come full circle and think about all of these
different disciplines, all of these different ideas, and see how it works
within the context of the literature pieces.”
For example, in one piece he cut and folded
pages from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature and Other Essays,” arranging them in a
mandala pattern that could be a flower — or an ornately-decorated cathedral
window.
Meanwhile, Henry David Thoreau’s journal is
transformed into a labyrinth encircling and curling around a stark praying
bench.
Other pieces in the show — around 30 in total
— include a wall of 50 black icons with a kneeling bench, and rocks of various
sizes, colors and shapes encased under glass domes.
Lookerse, who identifies as a sculptor,
painter and performance artist (among other descriptors,) embraces abstraction.
Words, after all, he said, are just that.
“Abstraction as a whole I think is really
misunderstood outside of the academic art culture,” he said.
He added that, “There’s a level of absurdity
through all art, and then there’s the artist asking the audience to have a bit
of faith in what they’re presenting,” whether that’s purely enjoying the
aesthetics, thinking about its implications, or developing their own
interpretation.
Lookerse’s particular style of abstraction
arises not only from his themes, but his process.
He describes himself as “a little like a Swiss
Army knife,” using whatever tools and materials he needs in the studio —
manipulating them to explore their limitations and figure out new ways to use
them – to bring tangibility to an idea. There’s a lot of tinkering; a lot of
mistakes.
“It’s a process of exploring and trying new
things,” he said. And eventually, “you find a little nougat of ‘Hmmm, that was
interesting.’”
(“Greg Lookerse: Literary Soil” remains on
view through August 20 at Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Rd., Harvard,
Mass. For more information, call (978) 456-3924.).
