Lawrence Malstaff lecture

The Long Now

Lawrence Malstaf is a young Belgium artist that studied industrial design in Antwerp. Most of his works are very technological installations were the users have a new feeling of space and a new conscience of their own bodies.
Lawrence said that he liked very much the formation he had as a designer because he sees an artist learning much more art history and styles than materials and technology, which are very important to his work and also a source of inspiration.
He started working with theatre, as a scene designer. The main performances were connected to dance. We can observe that in this beginning his work was very much linked to the human body, the ephemeral and movement, things that are still part of his works.
Lawrence said that his first works as an artist were a kind of reaction against what he used to do in theatre - a collective event targeted to a group of people (an audience) which is usually passive, with the same perspective in the work. The first art pieces he designed were very individual: only one person could experience the installation at a time. One example of it can be “Mirror” (2002), an installation where he confronts the person with his/her own image through a mirror. But the experience is not only audio-visual, it is specially about change and movement: the mirror shakes, and, in a certain moment the image of the spectator also disappears.
Another experiences also focused on the individual and the totality of the human senses are “Periscope” (2001) and “Shaft”(2004). The first, an outdoor project, consists in a house with a glass ceiling and a monitor. The person lay under this ceiling and, outside the house, there’s a balloon with a camera, filming the person that is laying down inside. The balloon is released, and the person watches his/her own image getting smaller and smaller, getting lost in the infinite size of the universe. “Shaft” is also a contemplative experience, where the person lays under a big transparent tube. Inside it, porcelain plates seems to dance. In a certain moment, the plates brake and fall over the spectators head, which, of course, is protected.
“Nevel”(2004) is a bigger scale project, with more social interactions. It consists in a labyrinth with moving walls. The movements of the walls force the visitors to relocate themselves and adapt to the fast-changing environment. In the same “physical space”, machine and restriction themes, we have Lawrence’s “Compass” (2005) and “Tollen” (2006). “Compass” is a machine adapted at the user’s waist, which guides the person through an imaginary space, simulating barriers and more fluid passages. “Tollen” is a performance where spinning tops interact with each other. Here, the objects seem to be alive and to make choices independently.
One of the most interesting works of Lawrence Malstaf is “Shrink”. It consists in “packing” a person between 2 layers of plastic and hanging it. Although we can see the breathing tubes, the images are very shocking and impressive, the person inside seems to be suffering. However the relates are that the experience is quite comfortable, just like a big hug, and you feel relaxed. Like a re-conceiving moment, a re-birth.
Another very beautiful project is “Boreas” (2007). It is made of 64 plastic tubes which with a lot of technology slowly bend and come back to the original form. It looks like hairs or a field in the wind because the movements look very natural. People walk through it and experience this natural/mechanical space.
Other important works of the artist are “Sand Bible” (2000), “The Long Now” (2002), and “Sauna in Exile”(2002).
During the lecture, Lawrence showed not only pictures of his works, but also videos, and he said still it was not enough. He believes that the importance that the so-called soft senses (smell, touch, balance, taste) are very underestimated. Without them it seems to be quite hard to represent his work, because it is about total experiences.
About his timing, he thinks he is quite slow, and he said he develops about 2 or 3 projects a year. This is also because there are few people working with him and the projects are very demanding, as well as the other related activities.
Lawrence Malstaf is really an intuitive artist whose installations seem to be increasingly immaterial and more experience focused. If, in one hand, history and science are things we are taught in dogmatic ways because of the enormous need for accuracy, on the other hand our experiences are to a huge extent biased by our memories. These experiences should be generated by addressing all five senses without giving priority to the communication-technologies which are today still limited to the audio-visual. And the public becomes a physical part that is essential to the installation and experiences things from within.