#Hashtag | Feb. 2024
#HASHTAG: LINCOLN SCHATZ
By Dustin O’Regan
ILLUSTRATION BY TOM BACHTELL
Artist LINCOLN SCHATZ’s studio practice spans photography, sculpture, drawing, and new media. His genre-defying work has been exhibited in major museums and international collections including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the U.S. Department of State, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Beginning in 2015, Schatz began to undertake work on The Lake Series, a project that he continues to develop and iterate on today. Over the last eight years, he has visited Lake Michigan on a near daily basis to photograph the ever-changing conditions in a meditative homage to its majesty. His recent stainless steel Graftings sculptures of trees are informed by his long-standing interest in the flora and fauna of the United States. Schatz is co chairing “Darkroom,” the Museum of Contemporary Photography annual benefit auction on February 29 at Columbia College, honoring Dawoud Bey and Jason Pickleman. Here is how this creator stays on trend.
#ON MY NIGHTSTAND
I admittedly have a book buying obsession. There are books everywhere in our home, and my bedroom closet has become a de facto library unto itself. I just finished reading God, Human, Animal, Machine by Meghan O’Giebly. A remarkable book that connects the myths and narratives of our cultural inheritances with the rise of AI, it is a book that is prescient, well researched, and personal. It has helped me to contextualize our technological moment within a broader historical framework and allowed for me to better understand the ways that AI and technology shape and influence contemporary culture today as well as our future.
#ON MY MOBILE
Brett Gorvy’s symbiotic postings of visual arts and literature on Instagram nourish my mind and eyes.
#IN MY EARBUDS
Each morning for the past eight months I have listened to Sam Harris’s Daily Meditation on his Waking Up app. I have yet to find the edge of his intellect, and the ways he explores mindfulness and meditation are fascinating and compelling to me, hence my continued engagement. This small daily ritual has connected me not only with my base condition of consciousness but in turn, has changed my relationship to the world around me. Taking the time each day, even if only for a few minutes, has helped me see and think more clearly in life in ways I couldn’t have expected.
