Icons of Futures Past: James Labold - Habatat

JA ME S L ABO LD i cons of fu tures p ast

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

JA ME S L ABO LD i cons of fu tures p ast

My work draws on contemporary and historical imagery to create imagined narratives reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture. I’m inspired by the high culture of classical sculpture as much as the low culture of dollar store holiday decorations. Both are important symbolic representations of the modern world. I often utilize mass produced kitsch found objects which are replicated, distorted, and reconfigured with elements directly modeled by myself. Some pieces are almost overloaded with iconography, just as the constant stream of news and images scrolling across our devices merge into an incoherent mass of content.

History repeats itself in my work. The repeating past informs the present. I mine the past for icons to remix in the present.

A biblical boy hero, modeled in the Italian Renaissance, can become a stand in for young protestors in the 21st century.

Multiple layers of meaning and investigation exist simultaneously in my work. My own love of history, mythology, and philosophy drives my curiosity into how we define our cultures via images.

I believe art should be a reflection of the time and place in which it was created. In a globally interconnected world full of social and political upheaval and a 24 hour news cycle with mixed messages from all sides, I reflect these confused connections between yesterday's myths and today's narratives.

-James Labold 2020

AB OUT TH E W ORK Each of these works began as lost wax assemblages, with imagery drawn from found objects or directly modeled by myself. My work has often utilized objects of mass produced patriotic kitsch, replicated, distorted, and reconfigured into new narratives and meanings. This plays with the malleable side of history, or how conceptions of historical events change over time. The more recent pieces each draw on historical imagery and iconography while also addressing contemporary issues.

Den of Snakes is a swarm of snakes wrapped around one another and a small replica of the US Capitol building, molded from an Avon cologne bottle. With the current political discourse in the US as divided as it is, it seems everyone has an unsavory opinion about some house of congress or the other. I started working on this piece while thinking about my own distaste for some particular members of the Senate, but at the end of the day US national politics is dominated by two heavily entrenched parties who often seem more interested in their own power than the will of the people. A den of snakes no matter who is in charge?

A Continuous Debate in the Ruins began as a rumination on the ongoing gun violence epidemic in the US. Originally this was sparked by the school shooting in Parkland, Florida and the inspirational response of the student organizers of March for Our Lives. But my process is slow, before I had even finished that wax, the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh was the latest mass shooting to come to national attention. Each of these followed with empty thoughts and prayers and the endless “debate” over gun control. In addition, the daily gun violence that plagues our cities continues destroying lives with little media fanfare. The assemblage uses a copy of Michelangelo’s David as a stand in for the youth fighting for change. Other imagery includes a handshake between red and blue hands, toy machine guns and pistols, cherubs, various items of americana, and snakes all wrapped up in chaotic neoclassical ruins. The warped elements represent the ideals destroyed by the indifference or willful negligence of those in power, with some shred of hope in the eyes of the youth at the top of the piece.

Repeating Pair is composed of two forms made up of repeated and manipulated portraits of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Arguably two of the United States most iconic Presidents, separated by almost a century but connected in history by their tragic assassinations. Due to this, both are revered almost as martyrs or saints would be in a religious tradition. While each figure comes from a different political party in a different era both presidencies were defined by political and cultural upheaval. The legacy of slavery, which at least officially ended during Lincoln’s day, was still felt and fought against during the Civil Rights movement in Kennedy’s, and the battle continues to this day. The Presidents emerge from one base, two characters emerging from the history that keeps repeating.

End of the Death Merchants Wisdom is another sculpture in response to gun violence, with a hopeful yet somber tone. In this piece an owl sits atop a pile of weapons, bent and broken by cherubs. This piece symbolizes the hope that one day wisdom and peace will prevail over violence and incendiary rhetoric.

Truncated Column for The Invisible Hand creates a personification of Adam Smith’s often referenced “Invisible Hand” of free market economics, set on a column based on classical Roman proportions. The idea of the invisible hand is often used to argue for laissez-faire economic models, it’s meaning has evolved greatly since Smith’s original writings, but it has always felt like a strangely mystical element in the science of economics. Throughout the piece I’ve borrowed imagery from neoclassicism, mystic traditions, and americana. A hand with an eye, loosely based on a protective talisman, becomes the head of a muse-like classical figure. At the base of the column an eagle wrestles with a snake, as American ideals of freedom and democracy can sometimes clash with markets and corporate ethics. The column could be viewed as incomplete or as an artifact of ideas from the past.

The Sleep of Reason is a relatively simple depiction of Donald Trump’s head combined with an owl’s body. The owl is a symbol of wisdom for some cultures, but a harbinger of death in others.

Alternatively this chimera could be viewed as a harpy of some sort, ironically turning the notorious womanizer and international bully into an icon used as a derogatory term for an unpleasant woman. The title references Francisco Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” from Los Caprichos, Goya’s series of prints criticising the societal ills of his own time.

Our national sleep of reason has produced this monster.

Den of Snakes, 2019 Blown glass, mixed media 16 x 9 x 8 inches

History repeats itself in my work. The repeating past informs the present. I mine the past for icons to remix in the present

A Continous Debate in the Ruins, 2018 Blown glass, mixed media 28 x 12 x 11 inches

Repeating Pair, 2019 Blown glass, mixed media 18 x 15 x 8 inches

End of the Death Merchant’s Wisdom, 2018 Blown glass, mixed media 12 x 8 x 8 inches

My own love of history, mythology, and philosophy drives my curiosity into how we define our cultures via images.

Truncated Column for the Invisible Hand, 2019 Blown glass, mixed media 27.5 x 10 x 10 inches

Sleep of Reason, 2019 Blown glass, mixed media 20 x 8 x 7 inches

I believe art should be a reflection of the time and place in which it was created.

JA ME S L ABO LD i cons of fu tures p ast

an on line exhibit ion

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