ScottFHallSculpture019

myminifactory

These works form a single body of work created by art and design professor Scott F. Hall, who has been producing them since 1989 to present. Hall developed this style initially by creating large, interconnected networks of figures within drawings that were up to 3.5 meters wide. The drawn figures emerged through an automatic process of additive and subtractive mark making, which tended to induce pareidolia (visions conjured from the amorphous field, as in cloud reading). Once noticed in the field, each figure could be developed further to bring it into sharper view. As an undergraduate sculpture major at the time, Hall soon began creating equivalent 3-D imagery focused on a single clay-modeled figure presented in a particular pose, usually in half-bodied form (depicted only from the pelvis upward). Throughout this three-decades-long series, Hall's sculptures feature figures in solitary and bound conditions: this depiction directly references Existentialist philosophy, which was of great interest to him in the late '80s during the heyday of Postmodern disillusionment. Although Hall's philosophical outlook has moved beyond Existentialism and Postmodernism, the stark and quietly tortured look of his figures persists for consistency. Every sculpture in this series remains untitled, fitting with the surrogate nature of Hall's figures. Each piece begins as a small-scale model in white oil-based clay, with each figure ranging from 12 to 20 centimeters in height. Modeling is typically done entirely with the fingers, and composition of poses occurs only during study phases that take place before actual sculpting of clay. Ultimately, Hall sculpts each figure quickly and from memory, producing works that exhibit high realism but in an impressionist sense: each viewer is encouraged to interpret each Hall sculpture individually. Following sculpting, each clay figure is scanned using a turntable, cleaned of stray pixels, and converted to STL file format. If any artifacts of digital processing persist (i.e., small areas of faceting), Hall tends to accept these as markers of the creative 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. Contact email: Scott.Hall@ucf.edu Biography: https://svad.cah.ucf.edu/faculty-staff/?id=92