Chris Lael Larson

Image © Chris Lael Larson

Artist Statement

I am a Portland-based artist working in the overlap of photography, assemblage, and painting to create new perceptual experiences. My subject matter is the everyday absurd - the strange, curious, and confounding ways we connect to each other, the things we consume, and the environments we inhabit. In my work, I construct temporary altar-like installations utilizing found objects, reclaimed materials, natural elements, cheaply printed photographs, and paint to accentuate their latent qualities and reframe their meaning. Sometimes the installation is the final piece and sometimes I create large-format photographs of my constructions with a hyperreal lighting technique to create a final image that confounds expectations.

In the submitted series Painting over Photos of the Mall, I paint over large-scale photographs I took of the hollowed-out storefronts of the Lloyd Center Mall in Portland, OR, and combined them with construction materials - wood, brackets, fasteners, plastic, glass - to create temporary assemblages. Taking inspiration from the new flock of artists and independent vendors who have breathed new life into a dying mall, I transform scenes of deserted enterprises into colorful, unrestrained constructions. Finally, I install these pieces in the mall and re-photograph them - taking vacated venues and giving them new life.

Chris Lael Larson | Portland, OR