Big Foot is cool

I can honestly say I wasn’t particularly feeling like going to see an artist talk after class a couple of weeks ago but as usual, I was glad I did. David Hoffos, an installation and video artist from Lethbridge came to speak on what seemed like a bad day, but then he seemed like someone who had a lot of bad days. His tone was very somber and melancholic, which could also describe the work he would later show. He began his talk speaking of his childhood and how he fell into a career of art after starting art school somewhat later than most. He felt alienated as a child and was later told he had anxiety issues and was not “retarded” as he was told growing up. He showed us a photograph of one his constructions he made as a child; it was a lot larger than any my brothers and I made when we were little and after seeing his more recent work, it looked like it could be the first out of a lifelong series from one body of work.
Hoffas was not a great speaker, his tone rarely changed and he there were a couple of fairly long awkward pauses; however, unlike most talks I’ve seen, I got a good sense of who he is, both an artist and as a person which helps me to understand his work. From a young age, Hoffos wanted to be work with film, but after many attempts, gave up on getting accepted into film school. From here he decided to apply to art school. In school he worked with found objects creating different three-dimensional environments. He attempted to give useless, discarded objects and new purpose. As a art student I found it interesting to hear him talk about his conceptual process as I’ve been thinking a lot of these two different ways of working, making your work to suit a concept or finding your concept in your work after. Hoffos prefers the latter. He feels that it is a more personal approach and perhaps, a way of working from your subconscious.
Hoffos showed us a large body of work and though his work was able to get a good sense of it through slides, I think it would leave such a large impression seeing it first hand. His work embraces large, sometimes end of the world-like topics such as “Catastrophe” which comprises almost every way of dying excluding health related causes. Although many of his pieces are similar to a film set and on the surface lack a personal feeling from the artist, I found that his more recent work which incorporates film projection, allows for a more intimate experience. His digital components also help to accentuate the creepy, fantasy feeling that his work already possesses. I found it interesting that although he uses film and digital media in his work, he doesn’t use new media like most artists doing work similar to his. However, as he stated, the older and less developed technology suits his work, which he happily slots in somewhere close to the Brady Bunch.
I found this to be one of those talks that added so much more to work that already has a lot to say. I appreciated that he let his quirky personality come through and that he was willing to share personal details that helped his audience get a better grasp of his practice and his art.