ART-PRESENTATION: Nicolás Lamas-Assemblage and Circulation

Nicolas Lamas, Arm Plastic, 2021, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.Avid explorer of our relationships with objects, Nicolás Lamas takes a dialectical approach to art-making. He places everyday items in unexpected combinations, carefully developing site-specific works and exhibitions which challenge received knowledge and shared perception through ingenious positioning and play.

By Efi MIchalarou
Photo: S.M.A.K. Archive

The works  in Nicolás Lamas solo exhibition “Assemblage and circulation”, reference tensions between the human body as object and matter as an active factor. The idea of the object as an archaeological evidence that appears in certain compositions doesn’t reference to its passivity, and rather functions as a kind of assemblage that has to do with the incorporation of words, images, shapes and found objects to signify the distinctive attributes of those objects as an intrinsic element of a disembodied humanity. Through his eyes, matter often presents itself as a complex archaeological site characterized by a range of inanimate materials, life forms, technological artefacts, times in collapse and linguistic references. These structures combine fiction, life and inertness while triggering a space of transaction between the human linguistic way of apprehension and other forms of activating perception. Both human and non-human negotiate a dynamic entanglement with each other. Nicolás Lamas work derives from the interest and mistrust in constructed perceptions, which are considered to belong to a “natural order” and constantly build our notion of truth through a systematized knowledge. Most of his questioning focuses on examining the models associated with scientific research and the constant pursuit of order, measure, and control of the laws that govern the perceptible world. Through different guidelines, Nicolás Lamas analyze the relationship established between knowledge and power, and how that bond ideologically determines the way we perceive, interpret, and interact with our environment. Lamas are interested in the search for the gaps and cracks generated in specific relations between representation systems and the notion of an objective and indisputable reality. In order to exemplify the perceived inconsistencies, he carefully manipulate images, texts, sounds and other elements that are associated with capturing,  interpreting and transmitting information. Through this, attempt to somehow put into evidence relativity, malleability, and the level of indetermination in all of which we attempt to comprehend by trying to search for an objective and definite truth.

Photo: Nicolas Lamas, Arm Plastic, 2021, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.

Info: S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, Gent, Duration: 10/4-23/5/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 9:30-17:30, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, https://smak.be

Nicolas Lamas, hand skull postcard, 2021, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.
Nicolas Lamas, hand skull postcard, 2021, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.

 

 

Nicolas Lamas, Prosthetic limbs, 2019, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.
Nicolas Lamas, Prosthetic limbs, 2019, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.

 

 

Nicolas Lamas, Mask Resin, 2020, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.
Nicolas Lamas, Mask Resin, 2020, © Nicolás Lamas, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.