El Shed’s inaugural exhibition presenting the latest work of St. Louis based artist Martin Lammert.

About the work:

Straight teeth are a modern obsession: a cultural marker of order, cleanliness, and control. A snaggletooth whispers of something untamed. It could be considered a remnant of the primal. It is a tool in a line that doesn’t fit in, but it still performs its function without fault.

I think of The Three Fates (the Moirai of Greece, the Parcae of Rome) how they embody destiny, time, and the human condition. Clotho spins the thread of life; Lachesis measures it; Atropos cuts it. Gods are subject to these laws. An interpretation could be that life is a continuous and breakable thread. Fate, inscrutable, suggests a structured cosmos, beyond human negotiation, but it also provides a framework for surrender… accepting that unseen systems, whether capitalism or nature, shape life beyond individual will. The truth to this is debatable.

For me, displaying a towel, or any textile, is a way of rendering fate visible. It's a depiction of tens of thousands of threads interwoven, a Rorschach of experience that mops up and holds interpretable imagery. It symbolizes the woven universe. But it is also just a dirty rag with dried body fluid on it.

Fast food toys are like analog clickbait. In 2000, McDonald’s released an eight-piece Disney Tarzan Happy Meal set. Each toy had a base and a mechanical action: sliding, pop-out, spinning, tumbling. (Words that also describe amusement park rides.) Together, the pieces clicked into a larger jungle playset. These toys, seemingly trivial, were little mechanical nodes designed to spark imagination. This is engineered marketing... the "collect-to-complete" mindset.

A waterslide is a sloped, flowing structure, channeling water for a body to glide. From straight chutes to winding tubes, funnels, and drops, they are wet, fast, disorienting, sometimes terrifying. They are curated paradises: sanitized, hyper-colorful “nature” designed to simulate thrills and adventures that might exist somewhere in the untamed world.

Like the Tarzan toys, waterslides are a controlled environment masquerading as chaos, a miniature universe in which the rules are fixed, but the experience feels dynamic.

A waterslide is a ritual of surrender, a temporary regression into a state without full agency, where thrill is mediated and danger is simulated. It’s a layout; an irregular line, twisting and turning, poorly directional. A tangled thread of sporadic sculpture containing woven information.

The spinner, the measurer, the unturning.

Martin Lammert

Bio:

Martin Lammert (b. 1990) lives and works in St. Louis, using formal fabrication techniques on found and store-bought materials like steel, fiberglass, PVC, buckets, and towels. While this "mixed bag" of materials can appear crude, closer inspection reveals intricate and skilled hand-finishing. This contrasts with a "bastardization of material" that stems from a knowledge of its proper use.

His practice oscillates between communicating sincerity and evidence of flippancy. Drawing on themes from recreational activities, amusement parks, architecture, and art history, he merges conventional entertainment with intellectual pursuit. His sculptures can be seen as operative and situational, though they sometimes resemble a pile or "the remnants of a hoarder," flourishing with interpretation.

As his sculptures develop, the composite structure addresses concepts of existentialism, play, meaning, and reality. The sculptures behave as form but also represent a built environment and the brain; Lammert sees his work as both a scale model and a neurological map. The work physically and metaphorically represents larger structures and philosophical ideologies.

Martin received his BFA from the University of Southern California in 2013 and his MFA from Washington University in 2022.

About El Shed:

A H.I Space Initiative dedicated to supporting artists developing experimental, situation-based work within a 16x17' space. We provide a focused environment with the essential resources of time and space, supplemented by professional mentorship, critical feedback, high-quality documentation, and promotional support.

We are fiscally sponsored by TechArtista, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This allows us to receive tax-deductible donations and grants to support our mission.

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