PRODUCT FLOWS: works by Chris Lael Larson
PRODUCT FLOWS
Chris Lael Larson
Exhibition Dates: June 03-24, 2023
Opening Saturday, June 3, 5–8 PM
Hours: Sat–Sun, 12–5 PM & by appointment
EXHIBITION
In the series Product Flows, Chris Lael Larson focuses on the tension between the pleasure of purchasing goods and the guilt of engaging in the glut of consumer marketing and waste while working as a graphic designer who feeds into the system.
In the series, he alters and paints the packaging of goods he consumed — rebranding them — and then integrates them into assemblages that reference marketing process artifacts. Chris photographs these assemblages in the style of product photography and then digitally distorts them by misusing an AI-powered image editing tool — subverting the tool’s image-perfecting power.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chris Lael Larson is a Portland-based artist working in the overlap of photography, assemblage, and painting to create new perceptual experiences. He culls riches from the everyday absurd, forefronting the strange, ridiculous, and confounding ways we connect to each other, the things we consume, and the environments we inhabit. Larson constructs temporary altar-like assemblages for the camera utilizing found objects, reclaimed materials, natural elements, cheaply-printed photographs, and paint to accentuate their latent qualities and reframe their meaning. He contrasts low-value materials and unrefined mark-making with a hyperreal lighting technique to create a final image that confounds expectations.
chrislaellarson@gmail.com
@chris_lael_larson