ScottFHallSculpture039

myminifactory

These pieces comprise a single 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 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). Once noticed in the field, each figure could be elaborated upon to bring it fully into view. As an undergraduate sculpture major at that time, Hall began creating equivalent 3-D imagery focused on single clay-modeled figures presented in a particular pose. Usually, these poses were depicted only from the pelvis upward. Throughout this three-decades-long series, Hall's sculptures show figures in solitary and bound conditions. This depiction refers directly to Existentialist philosophy which was of focal interest to him in the late '80s during Postmodern disillusionment. Hall's philosophical outlook has moved beyond Existentialism and Postmodernism, yet the stark and quietly tortured look of his figures persists for consistency. Every sculpture in this series remains untitled, mirroring the surrogate nature of Hall's figures. Each figure begins as 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 during study phases prior to sculpting. Hall sculpts each figure quickly and from memory, producing high realism in an impressionist sense. Each viewer is led to interpret each Hall sculpture independently. Following sculpting, each clay figure is turntable-scanned, cleaned of stray pixels, and converted to STL file. If digital processing artifacts persist, Hall accepts them as markers of process. Several of Hall's earliest pieces were molded in silicone and cast in wax, plaster, or resin. The first piece remains a one-of-a-kind lost wax bronze, still in the artist's collection.