Continuing Studies at UVic presents

A Ragged Edge, Daniel Laskarin explores possible futures

Published JULY 5, 2022

An artist and a professor with the Department of Visual Arts, Daniel Laskarin’s practice is object based, materially and philosophically rooted; it investigates our experience of images as a form of thought and of objects as other bodies, which in art may give sensory experience to consciousness. 

His approach encompasses diverse media, drawn from industrial materials and processes, sometimes incorporating photography, video, optics, robotics, installation and sound. As well as both national and international gallery exhibitions, he has been involved with set design, public image projections and large scale public art commissions around the Pacific Northwest.

This year, Laskarin’s work was featured in the prestigious Dean’s Lecture Series with UVic’s Division of Continuing Studies. His talk, titled “From a Ragged Edge: Possible Futures,” offered insight into how research and creative practice continually reshapes the way we live and think. 

“With memory as image and sculpture as the abstract body, time and physical experience may give form to uncertainty as a positive force,” he explains. “This talk frames my practice in terms of memory, collapse and art that offers imaginative prospects for a future not yet determined.”

When it comes to viewing art, Laskarin encourages people to not fall into the trap of assuming art always refers to something else or something outside of itself. 

“Art proposes a different kind of knowledge,” he says. “I would hope people can find a way to approach art the way they would if they came across a beautiful flower or a rock in the forest: a thing that is its own self. We might have a lot of questions about that thing, we might find resemblances to other things in it­—but, as viewers, we’re still confronted with the thing itself.”