Way Finding by Lawrence Woodford

Artist list

Lawrence Woodford

According to the artist, these wearable objects are a visual recollection of the places he seeks to recreate and inhabit, diagrammatic maquettes of mountains, valleys and localities he has visited, imagined or drawn. This notion stems from the literary works of Edwin Bernbaum, The Way to Shambala, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and The Dharma Bums. The ambiguity of the shapes and circumscription of the pieces are atlas-like, animal-like, mineral-like, elevation like and echo the elusive search for our personal Shangri-La. These new pieces allude to an improvisational aesthetic and the mapping out of territories through a visceral reaction of amalgamating disparate slabs of materials in compilation/ collage. Incorporating composite and reclaimed materials and re-purposing them blurs the boundaries betweennatural and artificial, examining artifice, and provides a moment for contemplation. Transforming these materials introduces a new value system and develops values more elusive than intrinsic worth