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British artist Lawson Bell responds to objects, natural or man-made, that he finds.
He imagines them as something else, in effect ‘re-imaging their reality’. It’s often the passage of time, and the natural forces creating a decay, that have allowed them to slip into this new state of being.
He will often write a story to accompany the work.
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Life out of reach, jagged mountains, sharp rocks rising from forests,
Copses and stands swaying in the winds of this underworld,
Bubbled pearls born from aired waves kiss and chase through branches of kelp as startled doves,
Anemone beckon, and jewelled scree nestled in envelopes of stone,
He’d wonder beyond the mountains, depths to misted blue, shrouded white boulders on desert sands.
When he was four, he’d lie at the shore, the glass door an inch from his nose, lost in this place.
When he was five, face, eyes and all, under and in, he could see, and fish would nibble his nose.
He didn’t know it was impossible, a boy, to breathe under, he knew no different.
He told no one, where he’d rather be.
When he was six, only his feet anchored to limpet rock, his body merged.
He’d been told of mermaids at bedtime, and day-dreamed of meeting one,
‘I wonder’ he thought.
‘We’d have the best conversations,
’And with that, he slipped away, new life begun
'I find objects, items cast aside by man or from nature. I don’t find them as such, I see them as being found, as if they were lost, waiting patiently for me to discover. I’m interested in the process of degradation, and the moment when I find an object that’s on the path to being drawn back into the earth. I re-imagine their reality, introducing a sense of the fantastical. Sometimes it’s a solo object, or I create a tableau to tell a tale. More often they are accompanied with the story I imagined, or left naked of words, leaving it to the viewer to put a full stop at the end of their imagination of the piece.'
Exhibitions:
2023
2024
A childhood naturalist, Mark spent his formative years in the woods that surrounded the family home in Cornwall. A born collector, his bedroom was a trove of tanks of the living, bottles and jars of the dead and taxidermized roadkill.
At 16, Bell picked up a camera.
At 18 he travelled to London to chase the dream of a photographer. After a few years, with an agent and work published in Blitz and Vogue, he crossed paths to sculpture, making pieces from found objects and fresh metal. He studied at the London College Of Furniture.
His career morphed to become a Creative Director. He went onto found two design agencies, Warm Rain and latterly Mark Lawson Bell Studio, under the moniker of Plinth Creative. Their client lists cited the world’s top brands; from ABSOLUT vodka, Boucheron, Cartier and Veuve Clicquot. They won a D&AD yellow pencil for a Pringle of Scotland interior, and featured in many design books. He was also the Artistic Director of ‘sketch’ in London’s Mayfair for 14 years, by all accounts the most creative collection of restaurants and bars under one roof.
Many clients would tell him ‘Mark you’re an artist’ Having created brand stories for so long, so he is.
Mark lives and works in Hastings, East Sussex, has three left handed daughters and is seen, always, with a leaf in his pocket.
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