There is something refreshingly boyish about William
Lamson’s performances, in which the artist goes out into a field and makes all sorts of delightful
mischief with his BB gun. Preserved as short video sequences, the scenarios show that Lamson is an exceptionally
sharp shot, except perhaps when he aims the gun at himself, as in the video William
Tell (2006), where the artist is outfitted in makeshift armor and tries to shoot a tin can off
his own head. While the scenes have the ready willingness of self parody familiar from the antics of
MTV’s “Jackass” crew, his work forgoes all the crudities of such in-the-face humor to create pared-down
images that, at times, verge on the stunningly lyrical.
Still
image from William Tell, 3:40 minute video, 2007 © William Lamson
A
good example is an extensive series of works – videos and photographs – titled Sublunar.
Interested in exploring amateur attempts at flight as a metaphor for the desire and ambition to overcome
human limitation, Lamson staged various jumps and flying stunts outdoors at night with a group of white
clad men and a glowing inflated orb. In one image, a circle of men with leaf-blowers seem to be keeping
a buoyant moon in the air. In another, a solitary figure seems to be attempting a launch with what looks
like an oversized paper airplane. The dramatic spot lighting evokes the deep darkness of space, while
the low-tech props suggest a quixotic futility in the men’s dramatically illuminated desire to become
airborne.
No 4, 7/12/2005,
Digital C-Print © William Lamson
