Vigilance, a solo exhibition by Scott Lapham

Vigilance, is a month-long solo exhibition by Scott Lapham. The exhibition features sculpture from three bodies of work including “Vigilance“, “A is for Anthropecene“, and “Perfectly Preserved Sea Shore“. “Vigilance” is a body of work started during the pandemic and is currently ongoing. “A is for Anthropocene” is body of sculptural work that explores the imagined transformation of human made objects by sea level rise. “Perfectly Preserved Sea Shore” is a collection of ‘documentary sculptures’.

The exhibition is on view in the WaterFire Arts Center gallery from Thursday, March 2 through Sunday, March 26, 2023 with an opening reception on Thursday, March 2 from 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. The third Thursday of the month, March 16, is Gallery Night Providence, the WFAC gallery as well as other galleries in the city are open late and trolley tours are available. An artist talk will take place on Thursday, March 23 starting at 6:30pm.

The WaterFire Arts Center store + gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. 

Scott Lapham was born in North Adams Massachusetts and came to Providence RI to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. His photographic and sculptural bodies of work have most often explored life in urban neighborhoods, environmental and cultural issues. Through personal relationships he looks to find the emotional value, historic relevance and an appreciation for lives being lived in places not often appreciated. His work is in the collections of The Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Fidelity Investments Corporate Collection and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI. Lapham’s art educational work has included co-founding the AS220 Community Darkroom, directing the Princes 2 Kings mentoring program and teaching youth from predominately underserved communities. In addition to free-lance photography and teaching he is currently producing an anti gun violence public art project titled One Gun Gone.

Scott Lapham is a NetWorks Rhode Island artist, profiled in the NetWorks 2011 – 2012 Catalogue. In addition, Scott Lapham is the photographer behind many of the 100+ photographic portraits of each artist. NetWorks Rhode Island, a visual arts project, was initiated in 2008 by Rhode Island arts sponsor and collector Joseph A. Chazan, M.D. The project proposed to document, celebrate, and foster the richly creative and diverse professional visual arts community in contemporary Rhode Island through profiles of individual artists and their work.

scottlaphamprojects.format.com
@slapham64

ARTIST STATEMENT

A is for Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems including, but not limited to, climate change. The sculptures in “A is for Anthropocene” are each titled as an exhibit in a court case. A pair of flip flops, a bowl,  eye glasses, a hand gun, a chair, a ladder and a mirror are the man made objects now encrusted with mussel shells. These objects have been transformed from useful to humans, to objects made useless to humans by the rising oceans caused by man made climate change. The corporations  responsible for the catastrophic effects of climate change have publicly denied the science for over fifty years to ensure their own profits. Like sociopaths, corporations only act in their own self interest without empathy for the people or communities they damage. Threatening these corporations ability to profit in a court of law is likely the only way to curb the threats they pose to the livability of our planet. 

Vigilance 

Each match stick sculpture in the Vigilance series informed the next sculpture. The meditative process of adding match sticks to the sculptures allowed distilled visions of the anxieties affecting me to effortlessly appear. Gun violence, disinformation, the affordable housing crisis, the environmental crisis, domestic fascism and a sense of overwhelm all found voices as they emerged from a vision in my subconscious world,  into physical sculptures in my conscious world. 

Perfectly Preserved Sea Shore

“Perfectly Preserved Sea Shore” is a collection of ‘documentary sculptures’. Here sea debris washed up on the ocean’s tide line is epoxied on site. Once cured, the pieces are brought inside where the viewer can contemplate the organic and man made inorganic matter that exist in our shared environment.