Art Practical: LPP in Conversation: Scott Vermeire
Studio Sessions offers behind-the-scenes access to artists, writers, curators, and creative individuals through a variety of tête-à-tête conversations that consider the how, and what, and where of making art. Studio Sessions are presented as interviews, profiles, and studio visits through text, photo essays, and videos.
LPP in Conversation visits Bay Area artists in their studios and project sites to explore the research, readings, obsessions, and inspiration they use to inform their practice.
Scott Vermeire’s practice hovers in a performative space between art and comedy. His abilities as a deadpan performer allow him to create characters that are absurd, threatening, and hilarious, while earnestly exploring what it means to be evil, to be a failure, to be desperate, or to experience self-defeat. Although some comedic practices, sketch comedy for example, might draw characters in quick, archetypal strokes, Scott’s commitment to personifying the characters he imagines leads to surprising, moving encounters with his audience.
In our first meeting, ahead of our interview, Scott was co-hosting a comedy night, dressed in an open-collar, button-down shirt and haranguing the audience in an aggressive bit of salesmanship about Google Glass. Through sweeping gestures and virtual screen swipes, he pitched an app that allowed him to use this wearable optical technology to blur the faces of the unfortunate and the ugly, which, as he emphasized, included 90% of the audience. He paced and grinned as we flinched and broke into laughter. At our second meeting, in a comfortable retro bar, he wore a blazer and a pocket square and talked about his deep but self-aware fantasy life, one of the tenets of which is dressing for success. Even his vodka tonic fit the character, and the character was Scott Vermeire.