Conveyors: Artist Derek Larson creates motorised paintings that highlight factory conditions

Conveyors is a series by American artist Derek Larson that features motorised paintings of conveyor belts to highlight factory conditions and the decline of shopping malls.

Currently on show at the ADA Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, Larson’s paintings are literally motorised with conveyor belts and rollers to move in front of and behind variously shaped paintings. The canvases move like the background of a traditional animation and suggest factory automation through their hardware and stripped down construction.

Also being exhibited is Larson’s animated series Très Mall, his first feature-length effort about three artists living in Savannah, Georgia. They encounter real-world writers in cameo appearances who discuss topics in activism, art, consumerism and the environment. The main character inherits a strip mall and his friends join in to witness a slow progression of misplaced ambitions and other hijinks.

Larson received his MFA from the Yale School of Art and has participated in a number of national and international exhibitions and residencies. His first feature-length animation, Très Mall, will screen this summer in Times Square New York City. With prior experience as a video editor at PBS, Larson’s work combines animation and video with painting and performance, his current work explores science fiction, autoimmune diseases and shopping malls.