The Lookout

The Lookout, as a character, conjures up images of a horse soldier with spyglass on a high hill, or a scout with binoculars wedged and perched between the v-of-a-tree overlooking the horizon, or stationed in a castle’s tower as he shades his brow with his hands, straining his squinting eyes for any slight movement, keeping relentless watch at the skyline in anticipation of any encroaching danger; then alerting all.

However, in these works we witness the lookout who instead, covers their eyes in the pretense that all is well. Also, borrowing imagery from Masachio’s The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, there are those who cover their face in shame as a consequence of their action, or is it their inaction? Then in contrary behavior we see eavesdroppers who waste their lives listening to walls and minding other people’s business. The information age is a gluttonous hobby. In this backward world, we see lookouts stuck up trees stradling limbs that are now on fire. Themes about conscience, open wounds and internal organs that are exhausted due to avorous behavior.

These are the subjects that huddle under the umbrella of the overarching theme of the potential numbing of intelligence. We revisit The Cadence of Stupidity and the drumbeat of repeating lessons we should have learned from before as we watch clearcut forests in process and libraries of stacked books that are now mere pedestals for sleeping sentries.

Arthur Gonzalez, The Fence in the Hole, 2022, ceramic, wood, bark, epoxy and oxides, 11” x 12” x 5”