sculpture

A Garden Lamp That Won't Blow You Up

Are you afraid of the dark? If so, New York artists Rees Shad and R. Stern want to ensure that you need not fear the light as well, lest you confuse a garden lamp for an IED. The two have recently launched the Declarative Lamp Project, on display in Kingston, NY as part of the towns Sculpture Biennial.

Rees Shad explains the concept: In January of 2007 the city of Boston was partially paralyzed by a bomb scare wherein a number of found electronic devices were seen as potential explosives. The devices featured a number of small flashing lights depicting a cartoon alien performing a crude gesture. Intended to advertise the upcoming season of a popular animated television show, this misadventure in guerilla marketing was perceived as a potential hazard to the population, or, even worse, a terrorist act. The Bomb Squad was called out to destroy the devices, and the city's major traffic paths came to a standstill for most of an afternoon. My first thought upon hearing about the Boston scare was that our fears had gotten the best of us. My next thought was that I needed to address this in my work as an electronic installation artist.

The Declarative Lamp Project, created in collaboration with artist Rebecca Stern, uses electronic performance to explore the extent to which fear has been instilled in American culture. Witnesses in a park experience seemingly innocuous electronic pathway lighting that comes alive at dusk with lights and voices in many languages declaring, "I am not a bomb."

Because these devices exist in a natural environment and use human voices, I wished to add natural and personal elements to the Lamps' execution. As a child I remember being fascinated by the mathematical equation to calculate air temperature from the frequency of cricket chirps. If one monitors a single chirping cricket for 15 seconds, the number of chirps plus 39 is the air temperature (in Fahrenheit). In our piece, this equation has been reversed to allow the evening's temperature to establish the rhythm of the declarative voices. In cold temperatures, the lamps speak less often than in warm.

To give an innocuous overtone, we chose a number of Arts & Crafts style solar powered garden lights as the framework within which to build our project. Ordinarily these lamps store energy during daylight hours and engage an energy efficient LED light at dusk. Ms. Stern and I have repurposed these lamps to flicker as if they hold lightening bugs in correlation with the recorded messages. This process begins at dusk, producing a chorus of voices whose rhythm is directly related to the temperature of the evening air. The lamps each repeat the phrase "I am not a bomb" in one of twelve languages. After a twenty-minute performance, the lamps power down to await the next sunset.

Via Make.

Posted by Rob Maguire on July 10, 2007 in

No Nudes is Good Nudes: Norwegian Censors

No butt cheek was left uncovered, no phallus unsheathed. Norwegians awoke today to find that a midnight marauder had censored the sculptures scattered through Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park. With the exception of one lone figure, every scrap of nipple, crotch or posterior was covered with black strips of paper, no matter the size nor position of the statue.

The unknown assailant left an explanatory note behind: "There is too much nudity in newspapers and magazines, so here on the bridge the limit has been reached!"

Some background on the sculptures from Wikipedia:

Probably the most famous park in Norway, it was created by sculptor Gustav Vigeland between the years 1907 and 1942. Most of the sculptures date from the years 1926 to 1942.

The park has as its theme what could be called the "Human Condition." Most of the statues depict people engaging in various typically human persuits, such as running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, holding hands and so on. However, Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, and to some degree defy understanding

Kazakh Artist Confronts Western Prejudice and Local Tradition

Kazakh artist Erbossyn Meldibekov’s installation “Centauromachy” at the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (in Kazakhstan) is getting some well-deserved attention. Meldibekov’s photographs, video work and sculptures are disturbing, provocative and playful. They confront Western prejudice while challenging regional tensions such as clan-based violence and political power. Meldibekov is addressing two audiences – a local audience rooted in regional cultural traditions and a rootless international audience who knows next to nothing about Kazakhstan other than a thin veneer of stereotypes.

The successful bridging of these disparate semiotic realms is partly what makes these works so compelling. Take Winnie the Pooh, for instance, an iconic figure from children’s literature in the West which Meldibekov renders in a bloody horse-skin turned inside out. It is an eerie, difficult and clearly transformed Winnie the Pooh we are confronted with. The Mask of Antiterrorist is a photograph of a “soldier” whose face is masked by horse’s skull. Memento to Unknown Hero eschew’s the title’s expected reference to “unknown soldier” showing instead four horse’s calves arranged on a pedestal as if the horse they were attached to was cantering invisibly by.

Not many of us will make it to Kazakhstan for this show, but it is definitely worth a look at the photos at the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art’s website.

Posted by Michael Lithgow on March 9, 2007 in

Search

A Garden Lamp That Won't Blow You Up

No Nudes is Good Nudes: Norwegian Censors

Kazakh Artist Confronts Western Prejudice and Local Tradition

Navigation

advertisements