In Mowing the Lawn, a character mows a mound of artificial turf that periodically grows. The piece started as a performance that accompanied an image — in 2013, I created an edition of 100 screenprints of a person mowing a lawn, commissioned by Pelican Bomb. In my first year of graduate school at CalArts, I expanded the performance into a short video, shot in the high desert of Antelope Valley, CA. I used the piece to process some thoughts about property, work, motivation, futility, and the absurd — finding inspiration in Sisyphus, as well as the history of development in that landscape.
Who helped
- Pelican Bomb
- Chathas + Crosby + Manuela de Laborde
- Christopher Foss
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A production still from the first scene of Mowing the Lawn in which Avery Lawrence sits on a white lawn chair in the middle of flat desert shrubland next to a small bell-curve shaped mound of artificial turf. Avery wears a straw hat, white short-sleeve shirt, red shorts, black socks, and white shoes. Over his right shoulder, you can see the cream-colored shade of a floor lamp. To his left, you see a push reel mower leaning on the mound. An isolated mountain peak is visible in the distance, poking into the cloudless sky.
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A production still from the last scene of Mowing the Lawn. Avery Lawrence still sits on a white lawn chair in the middle of flat desert shrubland. The mound of artificial turf, however, is now bigger, about twenty-four feet wide and twelve feet tall. It blocks the view of the distant mountain. The sun has just set. Without sunlight on the mound, it appears black and flat, like an abstract two-dimensional shape collaged into the photograph.
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A photograph of the Mowing the Lawn sculpture installed in the L-Shaped Gallery at the California Institute of the Arts in 2013. The green, twelve foot high and twenty-four foot wide bell-curve shaped object is angled into the corner of a large hallway. A gold floor lamp, white plastic lawn chair, and red push reel mower are on the left side of the mound. All the objects rest on a low wooden platform. The beige linoleum floor provides a rippled reflection of the sculpture.
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A closer photograph of the Mowing the Lawn sculpture installed in the L-Shaped Gallery at the California Institute of the Arts. In this image, the seams in the artificial turf are visible; you can detect how the bell-curve shape disassembles into eight segments. The floor lamp, plastic lawn chair, and red push reel mower are clustered together to the left of the mound. White walls, black ceiling, and beige and green linoleum floors surround the sculpture.
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A Mowing the Lawn behind-the-scenes production photograph taken by Manuela de Laborde of Avery Lawrence, Justin Crosby, and David Chathas chatting. In a desert shrubland, they huddle around the two halves of a bell-curve shaped mound of artificial turf. On the right, pieces of artificial turf and plywood sculptures litter the foreground. The white plastic lawn chair, gold floor lamp, and red push reel mower wait to be installed at the base of the mound.
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A production photograph taken by Manuela de Laborde of Avery Lawrence and Justin Crosby assembling a large bell-curve shaped sculpture for the Mowing the Lawn video. On a concrete pad in the middle of a desert shrubland, Justin positions an A-frame ladder in front of the twenty-four foot wide mound made of artificial turf and plywood. Avery stands behind the mound, ready to help install the semicircle cap.
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As the sun sets, Justin Crosby, Avery Lawrence, and Manuela de Laborde pack up the filming equipment used to make Mowing the Lawn. From left to right, Justin wheels a camera dolly towards a white box truck, Avery collapses a monopod, and Manuela carries a camera around her neck. Bags and buckets of tools and equipment are scattered on the ground. Long shadows extend from the people, equipment, vehicles, and landscape into the foreground.