Original Wood Assemblage - 'Mask II'

Laird Campbell works from his studio in the Cowichan Valley on the east coast of Vancouver Island, building abstract compositions from reclaimed and found wood. His practice is one of sustained attention — to the material, to the process, to the slow accumulation of meaning that happens when you work with your hands over time. He is drawn to aged wood for what it carries: the marks of use, the memory of other lives, the way time writes itself into grain and surface.

The mask is one of the oldest forms in human art — a face that is and isn’t a face, a presence that conceals as much as it reveals. 'Mask II' sits in that tradition without illustrating it: the geometry of the wood pieces suggests a face, or the idea of a face, without resolving into one. It is a work that holds its ambiguity deliberately, that asks the viewer to bring something of themselves to the looking. The title’s “II” hints at a series, at an ongoing inquiry into what a face can be when made from fragments of wood rather than flesh.

This original work is a Wood Assemblage: a hand-built composition of reclaimed wood pieces, displayed with a thin wood frame. Close-up photography reveals the extraordinary grain and texture of the wood; the reverse is also displayed as part of the work.

Medium: Original Wood Assemblage (reclaimed and found wood)
Dimensions: 13.75 × 10.75"
Framing: Thin wood frame; front and reverse both displayed
Authenticity: One-of-a-kind original; signed by the artist