{"id":3516,"date":"2013-01-31T12:51:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/?p=3516"},"modified":"2019-07-09T09:49:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T13:49:21","slug":"maskull-lasserre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/31\/maskull-lasserre\/","title":{"rendered":"Maskull Lasserre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I first saw Maskull Lassere&#8217;s sculptures in 2011 at\u00a0an art gallery in the Belgo Building in downtown Montreal. To tell the truth I saw a \u00a0photo of one of his pieces on<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2011\/07\/incredible-anatomical-sculptures-by-maskull-lasserre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Colossal<\/a> and got so excited I rushed straight over on my lunch break.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>His snake skeleton axe entitled\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/maskulllasserre.com\/section\/228335_Secret_Carpentry.html\">Secret Carpentry<\/a>\u00a0is one of the most superb sculptural objects I\u2019ve ever seen and don\u2019t miss his work with\u00a0computer software manuals,<a href=\"http:\/\/maskulllasserre.com\/artwork\/1647699_Lexicon_detail.html\">newspapers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/maskulllasserre.com\/artwork\/1647682_Migration_detail.html\">coat hangers<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/maskulllasserre.com\/artwork\/1647705_Four_Foot_Length_detail.html\">tree branches<\/a>. Lasserre is currently part of a group exhibition at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pfoac.com\/\">Pierre-Fran\u00e7ois Ouellette art contemporain<\/a>\u00a0(PFOAC) in Montreal through August 6, followed by a solo show in the same space starting in November.<br \/>\n&#8211; Colossal<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_3519\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3519\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3519\" alt=\"Maskull Lasserre - Secret Carpentry\" src=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-2.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-2-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-2-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maskull Lasserre &#8211; Secret Carpentry<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It was pretty interesting work, carving intricate skeletal details out of bits of furniture and other household items, like this piece where he carved the lower jaw of a child into the corner of a picture frame.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3518\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3518\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3518\" alt=\"Maskull Lasserre - Oracle\" src=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-11.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-11.jpg 600w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-11-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-11-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3518\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maskull Lasserre &#8211; Oracle<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Anyhow, to be honest I kind of forgot about Lasserre which is rather shameful as not only do I really like his work, but he is \u00a0Montreal artist and even has his studio in my neighbourhood. My reminder came yesterday via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.booooooom.com\/2013\/01\/30\/carvings-by-artist-maskull-lasserre\/#more-44085\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">booooooom<\/a>\u00a0in the form of an excellent post about Lasserre&#8217;s newest work, a series entitled &#8220;Fable&#8221;, which I am quite taken with &#8211; especially this piece, &#8220;Rat&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3520\" alt=\"Maskull Lasserre - Rat\" src=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3a.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3a.jpg 500w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3a-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3a-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3521\" alt=\"Maskull Lasserre - Rat\" src=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3.jpg 500w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3c.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3522\" alt=\"Maskull Lasserre - Rat\" src=\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3c.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3c.jpg 500w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3c-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/maskull-lasserre-3c-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I really enjoy Lasserre&#8217;s repurposing of everday objects into these delicate, intricately detailed\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Memento_mori\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">memento mori<\/a>-ish sculptures. Beyond the artistic mastery of it all, I have enjoyed a lifelong fascination with skeletal anatomy so these works speak to me on a very personal level. The transformative aspect of Lasserre&#8217;s work is intriguing, too, and is discussed briefly in an interview in Canadian Art last year:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>His themes are what he terms \u201celemental,\u201d which partially explains their dramatic appeal. Lasserre examines death, music, literature, beauty, pain, purpose and integrity (both structural and philosophical) through eerily complex representations of transformed tools, skeletons and animal parts that indicate a mastery of welding, forging, mechanical engineering, musical-instrument design and weapons making. Some of his pieces have incredible heft\u2014he builds full-size pianos\u2014while others are fragility embodied. One recent work,\u00a0<em>Murder\u00a0<\/em>(2012), features 19 crows and ravens he sculpted out of wood and then charred so that they disintegrate at the merest touch. It was exhibited in a group show at New York\u2019s Museum of Arts and Design earlier this year, along with a work by Andy Goldsworthy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Canadian Art<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In any case I&#8217;m definitely going to make the effort to keep Lasserre on my radar, as I&#8217;m really looking forward to seeing these new pieces in person. More of Lasserre&#8217;s work can be seen on his website. In parting, I leave you with this video of the artist a work via<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2230484\/Meet-Canadian-artist-carves-human-skulls--software-manuals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> an interview from the Daily Mail (UK)<\/a> .<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/vimeo.com\/4356872<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first saw Maskull Lassere&#8217;s sculptures in 2011 at\u00a0an art gallery in the Belgo Building in downtown Montreal. To tell the truth I saw a \u00a0photo of one of his pieces on Colossal and got so excited I rushed straight&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[169,348,177,242],"tags":[154,354,747,201,514,202,400,240],"class_list":["post-3516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-news","category-contemporary-art-2","category-sculpture","category-video-2","tag-canadian-art","tag-canadian-artist","tag-maskull-lasserre","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-artist","tag-quebec","tag-sculpture-2","tag-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JDlZ-UI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4618,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions\/4618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}