{"data":{"id":"7582","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":7582,"topgoose_id":1563,"tms_id":7582,"display_name":"David Lamelas","sort_name":"Lamelas David","display_date":"1946–","begin_date":"1946","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eBorn in Buenos Aires and educated in\nLondon, artist David Lamelas redirected his\npractice from sculpture to conceptual\nexplorations of media-based forms in the\nlate 1960s. Working in Los Angeles\nin the early months of 1974, he made \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/13820\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe\nDesert People\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a film he describes as a\n“fake documentary”—the purported story of\nfive people who, crossing the desert\nby car, discuss their experiences at a Native\nAmerican reservation in Arizona. Typical\nroad-movie scenes of the journey are\nintercut with passages of the talking heads:\nfour researchers provide varied accounts of\ntheir time spent on the reservation and\nimpressions of the Papago tribe, while the\nfifth passenger, a member of the tribe,\nspeaks English, Spanish, and Papago by\nturns. While these interview-like segments\nseem convincing, other aspects of the\nfilm betray the influence of the formulaic\ntelevision talk shows and spectacular\nHollywood films that Lamelas studied after\narriving in Los Angeles. In fact, the film’s\ndramatic conclusion calls into question all\nthat has come before and confounds the\nvery genre of which it initially seems a part.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis disruption of conventional\nstructures of narrative and categories of\nrepresentation—indeed, of truth and\nfiction—characterizes much of Lamelas’s art,\nwhich comprises painting, photography,\nsculpture, installation, and performance in\naddition to film, and resonates with\nMinimalism, Conceptual art, and Land art,\namong other contexts. Although often of\nmodest means, his projects engage complex\nthemes, plumbing and testing the limits of\ntemporal and spatial experience.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":null,"wikidata_id":"Q829004","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:30:25.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-28T07:04:29.564-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/7582/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/7582/exhibitions"}}}}