William Lamson: Experiment

Robischon Gallery

A A A Comments By Michael Paglia Thursday, Jul 17 2008

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The Robischon Gallery (1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788, www.robischongallery.com) is currently featuring Tattoo Detour, one of two solos in town by Jack Balas (see review, page 45), but there's a good deal more happening at the gallery as well.

In the center space is William Lamson: Experiment, which is the East Coast conceptualist's first single-artist show in Denver but not his local debut, as he was included in Out of Place, Robischon's contribution to last spring's Month of Photography. Lamson, who lives in New York, is a graduate of both Dartmouth and Bard colleges and has exhibited his work extensively around the world.

Lamson's signature is the introduction of unlikely and somewhat enigmatic elements into the natural and cultivated landscape. In his "Interventions" digital pigment prints, two of which are on view at Robischon, Lamson has some fun with the as-found scenery. In one, he's festooned a telephone pole with balloons; in the other, he's tied bananas to a tree. Interpreting the idea of adding to the landscape in a slightly different way are the photos from his "Me In America" series, wherein Lamson has photographed himself in various spots across the country but has done so in such a way that he crops out or otherwise covers his head in each picture.

In addition to the photos are several videos, both on monitors and in projections. One of these has a Bruce Nauman-esque character, with Lamson on a pogo stick breaking balloons with his head. The others aren't as referential to the history of video. A good example is "Emerge" (still pictured), a hypnotic projection depicting a scene of the underwater release of helium-filled balloons that bob to the surface and eventually rise into the air.

Lamson is also part of a mini-reprise of that Month of Photography show, and he's joined by Li Wei and Denis Darzacq, two other conceptualists who work with cameras. All of the shows run through August 2.