ScottFHallSculpture005

myminifactory

These works comprise one body of work that art and design professor Scott F. Hall has been creating from 1989 to present. Hall invented this style initially by developing large, entwined spans of figures within drawings which were up to 3.5 meters wide. The drawn figures were discovered through an automatic process of additive and subtractive mark making that tended to induce pareidolia (visions conjured from the amorphous field). Once noticed in the field, each figure could be elaborated upon to bring it into full view. As an undergraduate sculpture major at that time, Hall began to create equivalent 3-D imagery focused on single clay-modeled figures presented in particular poses. These poses were usually in half-bodied form (depicted only from the pelvis upward). Throughout this three-decades-long series, Hall's sculptures show figures in a solitary and bound condition. This depiction refers directly to Existentialist philosophy which was of focal interest to him in the late '80s. Hall's philosophical outlook has moved well beyond Existentialism and Postmodernism, but the stark and quietly tortured look of his figures persists for consistency's sake. Every sculpture in this series remains untitled, which is appropriately in-sync with the surrogate nature of Hall's figures. Each Hall sculpture begins in white oil-based clay on a small scale, with heights ranging from 12 to 20 centimeters. Modeling is usually done entirely with fingers. Composition of poses happens only during study phases, occurring prior to actual sculpting of clay. Ultimately, Hall sculpts each figure quickly and from memory. The works produced exhibit high realism in an impressionist sense: each viewer is led to cloud read each Hall sculpture for themselves. Following the act of sculpting, each clay figure is turntable-scanned, cleaned of stray pixels, and converted to STL file. If artifacts of digital processing persist (i.e. small areas of faceting), Hall tends to accept these as markers of process. Several of Hall's earliest pieces were molded in silicone and cast in wax, plaster, or resin. The first piece in this series exists as a one-of-a-kind lost wax bronze, remaining in the artist's collection.