Jefrey Lacson

For sales, commissions and to send comments to the artist click here

Artist Statement

In an attempt to overcome the psychic wounds created by growing up in the spiritually sterile conditions of late 20 th Century, I make art. Technological and scientific achievements eclipse spiritual understanding. However, I want to connect them. Modern science has made a large segment of industrialized society skeptical of spiritual thought. Consequently, spirituality is evaporating, along with the fundamental psychological fulfillment found in spiritual beliefs. The repercussions of this are evident in the first important myth of our time - visions of UFO’s (Carl Jung theorized in his book “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth”) as technological angels from the heavens and the hybrid forms of man and machine found in science fiction. My work is deliberately conscious of this condition.

In my collages, digital assemblages and 3-D constructions I synthesize images and objects selected for their hybrid forms. These forms are then mutated and remixed into “super hybrid” constructions. The focus of my work revolves around the central themes of evolutionary change and spiritual understanding. My aim is to draw a connection between environmental changes and the technology transforming how we live with the spiritual forces animating the natural world. The visual microcosms I invent merge traditional spiritual forms with emerging pop culture icons to release the mythological potential inherent in these cultural icons.

Art, philosophy and literature culled from ancient and modern Asian and 19 th - 20 th Century Western culture have been a major influence on my work. Sources such as Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstien”, Eadweard Muybridge’s motion study photographs, Futurism, Taoism, Buddhism, T’ang Dynasty scroll painting have all informed my treatment of this subject matter. These influences with central themes of the fundamental conflicts that exist between science and religion, the force and motion of machinery, the nature of change and the search for a definition of man and his status in the universe are all themes explored in my work. The influence of Marcel Duchamp’s Futurist era “Nude Descending a Staircase” for example, can be seen in my piece “Flex”. It harkens the Futurists’ depiction of motion and speed, the Cubists’ fracturing of form and Muybridge’s motion study photographs. The format of “Flex” allows for it to be played with by the viewer. The familiar object of building blocks is repurposed to include images of the dynamic movements of an anthropomorphous sci-fi toy transforming from a machine to human-like robot. It connects the previously invisible spiritual dimension of nature’s creativity, found symbolically in children’s building blocks, to the popular, unconscious, and personal domain of the viewer. Science Fiction films such as “Akira”, “Ghost in the Shell”, “Blade Runner” and the popular sci-fi cartoon “Transformers” have also informed my aesthetic and influenced me conceptually. Many of the hybrid images in my work originate in sci-fi.

My educational objective is directly linked to my personal evolution as a human being. I consider creating art to be part of my spiritual practice and am constantly in pursuit of perfecting it. Thus, education for me is a life-long commitment.

Jefrey Lacson

For sales, commissions and to send comments to the artist.