Images courtesy Random International. Photographs by Damian Griffiths
Random International, the prodigious digital artist collective responsible for the beloved Rain Room installation as well as the Future Self light prism, are to exhibit a new body of work at Pace Gallery in New York. On the Body is the first time the group will show their works as a collection and features sculptures Blur Mirror (2016) and Fragments / I (2016), made up of numerous reflective squares that come together to create larger, framed, mirror panels that question “how we see ourselves, these mechanized mirrors react to human presence in unexpected ways,” according to Pace Gallery.
The projects produced by the team of designers and engineers tend to incorporate LED components and kinetic robotics within a performative or interactive setting. The gallery says that the new collection, “offers physical manifestations of the relationships between humanity and machines through a diverse visual, material and technological vocabulary.”
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Photograph by Damian Griffiths.
Some of the other featured works include Self and Other (2016), a sculpture built on a large grid of glass sheets that are lined with LED lights. The project interacts with the viewer by creating a three-dimensional silhouette, like a reflection, out of mirrors. Pace Gallery adds that the installation reacts “with a slight delay,” possibly an intentional reminder of the sculpture’s technological foundation.
Small Study / 1 (FAR) is an installation that grew out of a previous project that Random International created in 2010 for choreographer Wayne McGregor‘s contemporary dance production. Poles attached with LED lights are spread out in a grid over a suspended rectangular plane. The different steel rods spin their lights around like a sprinkler creating a dynamic pattern of light and shadow.
The collective’s life-sized kinetic light sculpture, Fifteen Points / I (2016), is the exhibition’s centerpiece. The structure has been rebuilt on a much greater scale than the original Study for Fifteen Points / I (2016), which is also on display at the exhibition. The piece is comprised of pointy robotic arms that each have a white light on the end. The arms move in unison to create a cohesive LED impression of a bipedal humanoid walking forward. The lights move to position themselves in an outline of a person with their legs moving and their arms swinging.
On the Body will be on display at Pace Gallery from September 22nd to October 22nd. Learn more about Random International on their website.
Related:
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