In a landscape? Against a ground? A certain number, or a puzzling out of uncertainty? Figure, presents a body of work that is more exploration than assertion. All of the pieces presented, whether drawings, lenticular paintings, animations, or collaborative performances, ultimately derive from the artist’s desire to bridge the gap between the ethereal rationalized state of digital imagery and the physical and emotional condition of humanity in the physical world.

For Hughes, this effort began with an attempt to insert a figure into the “landscapes” that were generated by his digital animations. The drawings that emerged from this process subsequently inspired the artist to create a performance entitled Lummox. In this piece, Hughes simultaneously expresses nostalgia for and dismay with the aggressively ambiguous imagery of the glam rock bands of the ‘70s. Commenting on the relation of glam rock to his digital work, Hughes comments:

Working class glam was an attempt to assert a presence, to stake a claim to a home turf by aggressively flaunting visual and sexual conventions. This yobbish desire to figure in the scene obliquely reflects my sometimes clumsy, lummoxy stabs at inserting a human figure into an abstract landscape.

Just as glam rockers and their fans struggled to establish a particular and identifiable place for themselves in a world in which they felt disenfranchised, Hughes is attempting to infuse the generalized abstraction of the digital universe with the specificity of figuration.

Lummox had it’s now legendary premiere during Art Basel Miami, December 2004. The band’s costumes were created by Oliver Helden, and Kelly Lamb served as the “official” Lummox photographer. Helden designed tee shirts, and Lummox posters featuring one of Lamb’s performance pictures that will be featured in the show. British director Peter Boyd McLean worked with Millree Hughes on a somewhat unreliable documentary record of the preparatory stages and performance itself. A twenty- minute preview of Lummox: the movie will be on view throughout the exhibition.