William Lamson - Flight 2005-2007

The pursuit of flight, no matter how flawed or hopeless the attempt, places the amateur in the heroic position of trying to transcend his place on earth. This project investigates the flight endeavor as it represents both the physical desire to escape earth and the metaphysical hope to connect with the divine.

William Lamson

Stills Gallery is delighted to present a selection of three video works from the Flight series by emerging American artist, William Lamson. His artwork explores the glorified narratives that accompany scientific discoveries, feats of athleticism and heroic legends through the perspective of the amateur, who is motivated by love for the activity and a desire to achieve, but is limited by a lack of physical and technical expertise. In the resulting videos and photographs, human struggle becomes the central component.

Lamson's white-suited protagonists are hopeful and indefatiguable. Against the simple black background of night they perpetually chase enlarged paper airplanes or push glowing white orbs into sky, as if attempting to return the moon to its proper place. His protagonist's arduous endeavors offer the perpetual hope for transcendence, however flawed their undertaking may be. Although these disarming videos are at once both absurd and humorous, they manage to convey a profound sense of humanity.

In his statement Lamson writes, "If flight is a representation of divine possibility, open to anyone willing to try, then the same is true for art making. A paper airplane or a drawing on paper are both entry points to a kind of creative experience." By enacting these grand though often self-defeating undertakings, Lamson address the universal issue of human struggle and how we create meaning through it. William Lamson lives in Brooklyn, New York. He has participated in many group exhibitions including Flight of Fancy at the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007 and. Young Portfolio Acquisition 2006 at Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts Japan. His works have also been exhibited in Germany and South African and throughout the US. In 2005 he was selected as part of Photo District New's 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch.