Description



Steel Ice & Stone is a multi-media interactive installation.
Nine suspended LED panels and sensor-triggered sound create an environment for memory recall.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Building the Work

With my Kickstarter's end a mere six days away, I must turn my attention to things far more important: the installation itself. I never imagined a crowd funding campaign to be so consuming; and I'm not sure I will ever undertake something like this again. While, going forward, I will have a much larger reach and the needs will not be as great, I still wonder if it gets easier the second time around.

Doesn't matter.

Gotta build the work. The LED panels, made in China, are only part of the challenge. The engineers have to also get the electronics done by the end of the month for the last prototype installation at City Tech. Today I will be going to the Gowanus Ballroom with the LED panel to see how it will suspend in that locale, and, how power will be distributed to the nine panels.

As I get ready for that, I recall other installations being built or struck. Any time Richard Serra exhibits at Gagosian Gallery, people show up to see the installation of the huge metal sculptures. The attached photos give no idea to the extent of planning that goes into putting a work like this in a room. It's wonderful to see, as the entire back wall of the gallery is removed and the sculpture is brought in, piece by piece, on tracks and cranes.

When he had his show at the MoMA a few years back, this vid was produced on the installation of two works in the sculpture garden. The crane is visible in the second sculpture's installation. This stuff is not for the faint-hearted.


My nine panels present their own challenge:

The two exhibition spaces are not normally equipped to exhibit work that is both large and electronic; it's a challenge for them as well. The square footage of the exhibition space is not a problem either in Trenton or Gowanus, and since both were industrial buildings at one point, and suspending my 300+/- pound (136 kg) installation is not a big deal for them. Bringing power to the units is. 

I'm spoiled from when I exhibited the prototype in Red Hook, since that facility has relatively low ceilings with wooden spacers every 18 inches (45 cm). And, their power is right there, running along those spacers. I approach the two exhibition venues with respect and trepidation, although the exhibition directors of both venues are confident putting this work up will be a breeze. Ha!

However, many if not most installations are hardly a walk in the park. Some installation works are suspended, and others have to be walked through or around. Hans Haacke's "Germania" at the 1993 Venice Biennale is intentionally meant to be trod over, which sadly may limit some viewers' experience. Although the photograph below is beautiful and representative, it doesn't do justice to this moving introspective piece. 

Walking over the shattered slabs
in Haacke's "Germania"  created
 a gentle sonata.
What this conversation leads to, then, is that the work itself--the physical item--is truly meant to be intermingled with the viewer; and that effect is taken on in different ways according to the intent of the artist. This type of work is often difficult to interpret because, like SIS, it requires the viewer to enter the mind of the artist, and that is the real challenge. Often, an installation's concept is quite easy to understand; it's making the leap to how the elements translate themselves to evoke emotion that stymies viewers. 

Sometimes viewers don't know that they can interact with a piece unless told to do so. I'm on the fence about this: "push a button and this will happen" does not define interactivity in my book. Yet, how do viewers know that their presence will elicit a reaction? That's where the sensors in my work comes in. Only with the presence of the viewers will my work react. That's at the heart of the piece. SIS is there for one viewer to take in; alone with themselves. As others in the room do the same, the sound grows and melds into a layered sensation. The experience deepens. As I've said before: it's a dance I share with my viewer.

What pieces like this do is transform the viewer into a participant; the work's sensations are set free by those present.

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