Philadelphia artist Lewis Colburn creates whimsical objects and installations that embrace a histrionic sensibility of character- with materials playing the starring role. From elaborately staged photographs and performances to meticulously sculpted objects and museum simulations of Americana, his work exudes fabricated stories and generalized dictations of history. Colburn is very aware of the façades that storytelling scaffolds to real events. He harnesses new digital fabrication techniques to age-old traditional carpentry, creating displays of an inflated archive. Initiating a curiosity where history is nothing but a stage set, his work breaks with convention by allowing viewers behind the scenes of imagination. Re-enaction becomes an action, as viewers watch drama unfolding through physical operations and heroic inventions. …see the entire article in the print version of September’s Sculpture magazine.
