For the casual viewer, art merely consists of putting brush to canvas, pen to paper. For Mungo Thomson, art is playing with Photoshop, hanging mobiles from the ceiling, and, as he puts it, doing the wrong thing.
“Usually I just have some sort of perverse idea or notion in my head that is often largely in response to something in the world,” he said. “If it doesn’t go away, it starts to grow and becomes something I want to … turn into an artwork.”
Since graduating, Thomson’s work has been featured in solo exhibits worldwide, from Los Angeles to New York, to Paris and Italy. Thomson’s newest piece, titled “Negative Space,” is currently featured at the Hammer Museum. Comprised of astronomical photographs, whale songs, and bird sounds (or what the regular listener might think are whale songs and bird sounds), it plays with the conventional ways of viewing the world.
Thomson graduated from the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture with a master of fine arts in 2000. He attributes his love of art to the source of many young boys’ love: comic books.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a comic book artist. I was always into drawing and stuff like that … and then I kind of outgrew comic books and started pursuing fine arts,” he said.
Today, his artistic pieces range anywhere from wind chimes made out of coat hangers (“Coat Check Chimes,” 2008), to a silent film of a tree falling in a forest (“Silent Film of Tree Falling in Forest”, 2005-2006), to a 7-foot-tall wall made entirely of foam yoga blocks (“Yoga Brick Wall,” 2004).
The crucial element of humor and cultural references was also recognized by Hammer Museum curator Ali Subotnick, who’s known Thomson for five years.
“I think there is a lot about his work that is really compelling … and sort of humorous plays on a lot of the stereotypical California tropes, cult behavior and yoga and all that,” she said.
Beyond that, she finds that Thomsons’s work also encourages the audience to think deeper into aspects of everyday life that according to the artist, “tends to be overlooked.”
“There are open-ended questions; it’s up to the viewer (to decide) how much time they want to give to it, but I do think that the work attracts people to ask questions and to look deeper,” said Subotnick.
Thomson graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1991 and then moved to New York for the Whitney Program, a museum studies program. It was not until 1997 that he went back to school to pursue his master’s.
After visiting UCLA, his decision to leave the Big Apple was an easy one.
“When I came out to look at UCLA, I met with (Professor) Mary Kelly and I heard about what was going on in the program and who I’d be working with,” he said. “And it became a no-brainer that I would be moving.”
It was at UCLA that Thomson developed his own sense of style, with the help of many UCLA professors and fellow students. Important figures included Professors Mary Kelly (whom Thomson had also worked with at the Whitney Program), Lari Pittman and James Welling. Perhaps his largest influence at UCLA was retired Professor John Baldessari, who is also a conceptual artist.
“He was my mentor while I was there, and he was the reason why I came to UCLA. He was kind of known for doing the wrong thing,” Thomson said. “And it’s just a gesture toward the bad idea, doing the wrong thing … that interests me.”
Additionally, he also felt that being at UCLA gave him room and freedom to grow as an artist.
“(The program) had a way of you making you feel like what you did mattered in the larger world,” he said. “It primarily helped me by just letting me work … and giving me feedback from people I respected.”
In the end, how a person might view the world, and, ultimately, Thomson’s art, is entirely up to the viewer.
“I don’t think the intentions of the artist are all that important ultimately because I’m not around to tell you when you’re looking at it. It’s sort of somebody else’s job,” he said with a touch of wry humor.
“Ultimately the experience of the viewer is more important than the intention of the artist.”