People are using them, enjoying them, playing with them - and generally resulting a positive reactions all around. We are like proud dads. More photos will be uploaded when the paris experience slows down to a walking pace.
To set this up:
It ought to be loads of fun ;-)
We’re setting up an interactive installation at Paris’ fabulous Colette. Im so excited to acutally see a project Ive been able to work reaching its installed conclusion! I also expect it to be a slick installation. So if you’re in Paris, please come check us out!
I leave for South Africa again on Wednesday! The most important reason is of course the previously mentioned exhibition of my Gran’s. However, recently WITs joined Upgrade! International, and I have been the uber lucky one to help them inaugurate their existence! w00t!
Im flattered etc etc… And hopefully I’ll have something valuable to say about … er…. well whatever it is Im going to talk about.) I forget, so check the site Something about money, fabrica, and the commercial world…
If anyone’s in JHB, please come to the presentation - Friday 10th, 3pm WITS school of the Digital arts…
It was a mad week. Meeting a concentration of interesting people in a world that I’m moving closer towards…
When I have time to go through the hundreds of pics - they’ll be posted… And of course a brief review of some of the most noteworthy pieces and issues. but for now, here are the pics that summarize the Ars Electronica/Linz trip:
Ann and I met the Strandbeest group on day 1. Theo, Loek and Sonder… Everyday we saw them impressing the crowds with Theo’s incredible beasts. Every night we ended up drinking alongside them… and every morning - i think we all felt a little heavy headed!
It was absolutely bloody marvelous.
Click the pics for bigger versions!
Allora: We arrived at 7AM on wednesday morning… Can you believe that Johanna - our host and super kind Austrian friend - was actually standing there waiting for us! Talk about taking care of guests, eh?
Anyway, we ran around like headless chickens - pickup up the artists passes etc. Its fantastic to be taken care so well by the organization. Although were weree rather perturbed by the fact that most of the spaces we visited were still in the process of being set up! (Including our own - at the Architekture Forum.) However, by the time the openings began, everything was cleared away nicely. We found Music Box is part of the year long exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center. I can’t begin to describe how proud I am to see this guy becoming a successful artist. After we had a chance to chat - he pointed out how difficult its been - and it simply makes his success that much more commendable. (Imagine leaving your home in Korea 6 years ago for Maryland USA. Taking english classes at community colleges and doing any job that crosses your path… Your wife joins you, and you are forced to leave your son in the care of her parents; After three years, you find a masters program which speaks directly to your interests; And then you get through the post grad experience by contsantly improving a core idea that means a lot to you… The final result? You are awarded an artists visa, and your child can FINALLY come and live with you in America! Not to mention that people are really paying attention to you in the artworld. Jin-Yo is definitely one of my heros!
We also ran into Amit Pitaru at our opening… He was looking fairly exhausted because he’d been setting up Sonic Wire Sculpure at the O.K. Centrum. So good to see NYC familiar faces! I intend to write about all the works that made an impact on me later… However I HAVE to say something about one piece: The highlight without a shadow of a doubt has been the Strandbeest by Theo Jansen. Totally mechanized magnificent creatures - powered by wind and NO electronic parts. Him and his crew are absolutely the friendliest most gentlemanly group. I will write many MANY more words about his work soon - but for now, be satisfied with the knowledge that him and his creations are more inspiring than the rest of the festical put together!
The review of the biennale is going to follow… please bare with me: Im writing it in a wordprocessor - to identify spelling mistakes… hehehehe
UPDATE
The Arsenale:
On Monday 4 July (Happy Indy day, America) I went with David “The Journalist” Neustein to the Arsenale portion of the 2005 Venice Biennale. It was fantastic for a number of reasons that didn’t relate directly to the artwork – and so life goes ;-) For interests sake, here is the Official History.
The Arsenale portion is hosted in the most magnificent old shipyard warehouses. These buildings were originally used to construct the fleets of the Venetian Republic and have been restored and perfectly chosen for an event of this scale. It was my first time seeing these gorgeous spaces – and unfortunately enjoyed the architecture more than the work. There were a few pieces that are worth mentioning though…
Mariko Mori’s Wave Ufo – Gorgeous. Truly something out of a 70’s sci-fi movie which has been re-rendered by Pixar! People enter the bod structure 3-at-a-time and their brainwaves are associated with one of the visual effects inside the pod. I believe the whole experience takes no longer than 10 minutes… but the wait was 1.5 hours!
Rem Koolhaas’s installation outlining the plans for the Hermitage renovation. The most interesting showcase of museum related datasets I have seen. There are some beautiful visualizations of total floor space and comparisons to other large scale museums.
Cristina Garcia Rodero: Beautiful dangling amorphous aluminium masses. What else can I say? They look like they ought to come crashing down into a pile of liquefied metallic jelly. YUM.
Mona Hatoum’s + and –: A circular sand pit with a beam that rotates around the center. The one half of the beam is a toothed surface and the other is simply a flat edge. Constantly raking the surface and constantly being re-smoothed. Beautiful rhythmic experience.
George Pusenkoff Mona Lisa Goes Space: There is something interesting about the ubiquitous nature of this piece around Venice. The main piece can be found as you leave the Venice St. Lucia train station. It’s a massive metal enclosure with a series of bitmapped Mona Lisa’s framed in a Mac OS 9 style window. These images are aligned around the space in an order of increasing hue. Rather ugly. Then there are a series of large yellow replica’s of these images around Venice is select locations. One of these massive yellow mona lisa’s has had a mustache spray painted onto it and below it “this is not art”. I am totally sold on the piece if its intent is to promote public responses like this. Marcel Duchamp would be so proud!
Samuel Beckett’s video installation Breath: In one of the ship-building warehouses, this piece is made up of a perfectly aligned grid of projectors displaying a moving video image on the floor. I believe it may be images of a large trash head – or a close-up of a very colorful oil painting. Either way, its disturbing and thrilling to be standing on this moving floor – as you hear the breath escaping from the sound system.
At the outskirts of the Arsenale, we bumped into the China pavilion of the Giardini portion of the Biennale. There were two interesting works here:
Du Wenda’s Flying Saucers: Two strange looking flying machines sitting in the garden. They looked fairly functional in so far as their propellers might actually move… But they were truly something you’d expect to find in Leonardo Da Vinci’s basement.
Yung Ho Chang’s Bamboo Shoots: An incredible structure built entirely of long pieces of bamboo. Beautifully fluid… Inspiring a need to climb the delicate/strong looking structure. There is of course a warning to suggest that climbing would be an unfortunate idea…
Thus ends part one. One day I will attend the Giardini and perhaps post: PART 2 - Daniel wonders into Venetian Art Gardens!
LED artist. Beautiful use of LED strips and interacting bars of light.
Sculptor who has done some uniqe beautiful physical computing work.
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/hawkinson/#
- Good resource of info/videos of his works: “Überorgan”, “Emotor”, “Drip”.
http://www.whitney.org/exhibition/feat_hawk.shtml
- The Hawkinson retrospective at the whitney (2005)
Truly inspiring LED artist. Interesting combination of leds, videos stored on silicon and highlighted visual trickery.
http://random-international.squarespace.com/display/ShowPage?moduleId=132110
Very VERY clever. Phosphorescent paint on surface with superbright UV LEDs. The LED roller prints out either text // image over the paint. Super cool.
