Through performances and interventions Lucas engages the public in a dialogue concerning their notions of service, perception, liberation, and derivations of power. He uses the way in which he earns his living as “research” to inform his artistic practice. First he finds employment in a particular area of interest and then constructs pieces that expose the imbedded metaphors inherent to its structure. This is done through an examination of certain things that we typically take for granted such as furniture, service people or locks. Having completed bodies of work dealing with his “research” as a cabinet maker and as a busboy, Lucas has been working/researching as a Locksmith for the past five years and a half years and has been making the art work about this process for the past three. To do this he created The Locksmithing Institute. In different public settings he teaches anyone interested something specifically or loosely related to locksmithing, such as: “How to Pick a Lock,” “How to Find Your Keys,” or “How to Lose Your Keys.” At the same time that Lucas began working as a locksmith he also started practicing yoga. He wanted to compare the way we lock and guard our spaces to how we lock and guard our bodies. He is a graduate of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco’s teacher training program and has begun a new body of work/research dealing with teaching yoga and our perceptions of power. A graduate of the News Genres Department of the San Francisco Art Institute, Lucas is 32, lives in San Francisco and enjoys eating baking chocolate with his brother Matt.  

Website

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucasmurgida/