Caleb Larsen – art as transactional residue

In
the 1970s, Sol LeWitt placed a drawing in a box which he buried and
wouldn’t say where. The absence of the drawing did not deter its sale,
in the form of  a certificate of ownership. If the same reasoning
applied to cars, you could pay for the car and ride away on the credit
card receipt. Unlike war, cars, cats, weather and the kitchen table,
art still functions even if it’s only in the mind.

All art has its own niche. Larsen has staked his in a narrow band of comic process.

A Tool To Deceive And Slaughter
is a black box that will always be attempting to auction itself off on
eBay. The collector who acquires it has to agree to relinquish it if
another offers a bid higher than the owner’s purchase price, and so on,
forever. It’s an answer of sorts to Robert Morris’s Box With the Sound of Its Own Making from 1961, owned by the Seattle Art Museum. Larsen’s is a box with the sound of its own selling.

The Entire Contents Of The Pen
(1,604 Linear Foot Drawing). Starting with a fresh fountain pen, Larsen
drew on an 9 x 12 inch piece of paper until the pen ran dry.

The drawing now contains everything that the pen once was.

Looks a bit like a Clyfford Still, updated by means of an obsessive-compulsive back story and, of course, the pen.

My favorite scam
sculpture in the show is titled, $10,000 Sculpture (In Progress). It
accepts your money, and gives you nothing back. I slipped it three
dollar bills before coming to my senses. When there is so much in life
that disappoints in spite of our best efforts, it is positively
exhilarating to volunteer to be scammed, eyes wide open.

At Lawrimore Project through Feb. 13.