Artist Interview: Lawrence Blackman
Has the coldness and seeming meaninglessness of the cosmos got you down? Does the vitality of your endeavors pale faintly and intangibly in the midst of the universe's vastness? Has the consumerist materiality of modern life got you feeling like a flake of fleshy dust hanging onto a coarse and gnarled hair in the nasal cavity of the galaxy? In this interview, artist Lawrence Blackman discusses the use of humor and playfulness - in life and in art - to navigate the sinewy terrain of human reality and create meaning through our everyday actions.
Blackman is an artist and performer currently based in London whom I first met him when we both lived in Seoul. He also performs under the moniker Lozt. His art and his performances had, and continue to have, the effect of unhinging my intellect's tendency to take myself too seriously. When I witness his performances, they are catalysts that help me to better sink my teeth into the strangeness of the present moment. His work leads me to find some spark of creativity and inspiration in the grimier, more shadowy avenues of this temporal existence.
BEN JON MILLER: You and I first started doing public/street performance together in Seoul. What motivated you to start performing in public? How has it affected and informed your practice and/or your life?
LAWRENCE BLACKMAN: Street performance for me was an extension of the Lozt performances. Those had emerged as a way to lift the drawings and poetry I was making off the page and observe them in the real world. I think it was natural to take that into the street, especially as I had been putting images and text there for a while too.
It was a really effective way to keep the work alive and real. It's a catharsis of a sort and reminds me that a moment is there and then it is gone, which I think simultaneously makes me appreciate their preciousness and also helps me to not take it too seriously.
Lawrence Blackman, public installation, household paint and correction fluid on industrial cardboard, 2017
Not to say that was all on my mind at the beginning - I wasn't necessarily expecting those thoughts at the start, I just wanted to challenge myself and have fun, and I think performing with you really motivated us both to do more.
B: What role does absurdity play in your work? How do you use it to create the experience or communicate the concepts you wish to convey?
L: At the moment I'm at a point of reevaluation and I think absurdism has taken a bit more of a back seat but it still drives my thinking I guess. The idea of meaninglessness is emancipatory for me. The idea of trying to find meaning in an uncaring cosmos devoid of it - brings me back to the essence that we generate meaning through our everyday actions. We do live in relation to our past and future selves but along with that goes the idea that the meaning we generate comes from ourselves and is individual to us. In the work I make I think it manifests in a way of making that is never too sure or worried about defining itself, or shy of humour, and finding itself funny, even in misery.
B: How has your creative practice altered or added to your experience of life?
L: It's the most beautiful and difficult thing to do! It allows me to experience life in a way I think is uniquely mine and is a distinct pleasure to have access to. The ability to express yourself and either finding some sort of profundity in it or just pissing yourself at the results - it's brilliant.
“A moment is there and then it is gone, which I think simultaneously makes me appreciate their preciousness and also helps me to not take it too seriously.”
It also gives a passion and focus which I think a lot of people lack, which fills up my life.
B: Can you give an example of a creative work that has made a significant impression on your life and/or art practice?
L: There are lots but I suppose to make a relevant and concise answer, when I was younger classic comedy and Saturday got me. The idea that you could make a serious point through and with humour was really appealing and eye-opening - it started with things like Red Dwarf or Blackadder, which would discuss ideas about space or relativity or war, and the fact this came out of a comedy made it all the more powerful when you stop and think about it. This carried on in things like Brasseye. I suppose now, artists who do this would be people like Gavin Turk, or Armando Lanucci. Although we live in an age [in which] it is impossible to satirize.
Apart from that, it's the combination of all of that with beauty.
B: What helps you maintain your connection to creative ideas and inspiration? This could be a habit, an intention or motive, a material, a place, a person, a book, or anything else.
L: I'm not always sure I am - just the desire to not give up being creative or experiencing life.
B: What kind of experiences would you like audiences to have through your work? This could be broadly open-ended or specifically intentioned.
“The idea of meaninglessness is emancipatory for me. The idea of trying to find meaning in an uncaring cosmos devoid of it - brings me back to the essence that we generate meaning through our everyday actions.”
L: I want them to feel like there is a way to experience the world which goes beyond crude materiality, and hopefully to create some kind of dialogue.
B: Do you have any interests or practices that are not directly connected to your art practice (eg. sport, yoga, cooking, sailing, or anything else) that influence your art? How do they affect your creative process?
L: Everything is art! Yes I go to the gym and play video games, travel, languages.
Blackman performing a marriage in the guise of Lozt, as part of the exhibition Broken Paradox at the Chelsea MA Interim Show, London, 2018.
B: Are there any challenging aspects of your creative practice (or your life) that you enjoy or appreciate, despite the difficulty? How do you respond to those challenges when they arise?
L: Self-doubt when trying to do something new. This is the hardest thing but necessary to keep things fresh and interesting. I don't want to stagnate so trying new things and being playful are essential. When it's hard, you just have to keep going, have a cup of tea and a break or whatever, but don't give up.
B: Have you had any life experiences that impacted or shifted your approach to art-making? If so, could you describe one of them and share how it affected you?
L: Many, but travelling has for sure, each new place introduces a new context which makes the work change in meaning and feeling, as it does myself.
B: Is there a website or link you'd like to give people to contact you or find your work?
L: Instagram:
@lawrence_blackman
@loztreal
On my blog, you can find more writings on art and alchemical thinking, interviews about creativity, psychologically-oriented reflections on tarot, and more. You can check out past posts in the categorized list below.
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Art
- Dec 19, 2016 Wakey Wakey, Inner Kiddo
- Dec 28, 2016 How to Make Magical Oranges
- Aug 17, 2017 Put the Potatoes on Your Face
- Sep 14, 2017 Art is a Portal
- Dec 1, 2017 Why the Tutu?
- Apr 3, 2018 Public Alchemy: Notes on Street Performance
- Jun 22, 2018 The Freedom and Fear of Being Yourself (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Jul 2, 2018 About the Folks Who Think You Stink (Notes on Performance and Life)
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Interviews
- Feb 21, 2018 Artist Interview: Samantha Blumenfeld
- Mar 1, 2018 Artist Interview: Lawrence Blackman
- Apr 23, 2018 Interview: Yogi Ron Katwijk
- Jun 4, 2018 Artist Interview: Sally Nicholson
- Jul 18, 2018 Artist Interview: Kayle Karbowski
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Magical Thinking
- Dec 28, 2016 How to Make Magical Oranges
- Jan 15, 2017 Following Fear
- Feb 19, 2017 Why Does Heartache Happen?
- Jul 6, 2017 Nerves and Tutus
- Aug 7, 2017 Three Reasons to Destroy Yourself (Or Not)
- Sep 14, 2017 Art is a Portal
- Dec 1, 2017 Why the Tutu?
- Jan 5, 2018 Chaos' Playground: Finding Gold in the Shitstorm
- Apr 3, 2018 Public Alchemy: Notes on Street Performance
- Apr 16, 2018 Questions for Limitations
- Jun 22, 2018 The Freedom and Fear of Being Yourself (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Jul 2, 2018 About the Folks Who Think You Stink (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Aug 23, 2018 Melting a Snowball of Misery
- Jun 21, 2019 White Peacocks, Constipation, and Emotional Liberation
- Aug 5, 2019 Celebrating Your Misery
- Dec 4, 2020 The Healing Voice: Wounds, Addiction, and Purgation
- May 18, 2023 Magick is a Sentient Entity: Using the Imagination to Co-Create with Magick
- Jun 21, 2023 Magick for Reshaping Life and Transmuting Trauma
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Tarot
- Aug 26, 2017 Tarot as a Tool for Reality Construction
- Feb 28, 2018 Today's Tarot: The World is in the Seed
- Jun 27, 2019 Today's Tarot: Snot, Beauty, and Tea for Pain
- Aug 12, 2019 Today's Tarot: The Moon of Self-Loathing
- Aug 13, 2019 Today's Tarot: The Golden Devils Inside You
- Aug 18, 2019 Today's Tarot: Shifting Pain by Surrendering to It
- Aug 25, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #1: Why is the Present Moment So Much All the Time?
- Sep 3, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #2: Do abusers know they're being abusive, or is that just their sense of reality?
- Sep 25, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #3: Why can't I find more hours in a day?
- Oct 11, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #4: How long will it be until I have a new job?
- Oct 24, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #5: Why does my skin crawl with wonder and fascination as such important relationships in my life are connected by the eyes?