La Lumière de l'Amour

Flourescent Fandango

Born in Mexico City in 1977 and currently working from NYC, Alejandro Almanza Pereda  says that his work creates tension, ”Related to how we see risk and how we see danger, and the respect that we have for these.” [Interview]

Pereda creates precarious compositions using everyday objects and materials to create a sense of tension and impending danger, using our familiarity with them to heighten our measure of improbability. One critic even came up with the profound conclusion that it:

“Highlights human frailty…like the soft wind from an oscillating fan”
Wow. Really? Intellectual over-indulgence is an artistic prerogative. Probably heightened by the Mexican’s national shame [hilarious?]. But Alejandro needn’t worry so. While some of the more inert structures might ‘create tension’, others suggest freedom. And these interest me the most.

Assembled with fluorescent light tubes and clamps, the sculptures imitate the modular makeup of scaffolding (as above). His structural use of lighting components is poetic, and replacing the dull metal with glowing tubes is not only mesmerizing, but it seems so logical (although no one else saw it coming) as they share similar dimensions. And the compositions maintain the same material familiarity that we can identify with, flaunting any 'nu'-age media.

I’m very jealous, and intend to make my own scaffold lamp.

Fanimatronic

[Jonathan Schipper's installation "215 Points of View" on display at Pierogi's Boiler space during art fair week 2009]

I came across this chap, Jonathan Schipper, on his quest to uncover our humanity, with his project ‘Invisible Sphere’ (above). A 5.5 foot diameter sphere covered with video monitors & surveillance cameras, each monitor displays a live video feed from a camera placed on the opposite side of the sphere. The sphere can be rolled around in its environment and is a surveillance device that reveals what is just beyond it. Its scale & mobility defy secrecy. It’s an example of his narrative ability, which could be put to good cinematic effect. And in fact reminds me a bit ofthe film 12 Monkeys.

The Brooklyn-based artist's favored mediums are mechanics, video and sculpture, and some of his animatronic creations are as acute as they are disturbing. Check out the project videos on his site , they clarify a lot. Also, a visit to the artists' studio, on the 'Cool Hunting' Youtube channel.

Overall he seems like the kind of man whose drinks invitation you should decline, as his Victorian-theme party in the woods would turn out to be an elaborate bluff, and he would probably just cast you into his next sculpture or shank you with a pneumatic axe.

Light Architecture

Pyramid or Cube?

[Above: Daft Punk’s Pyramid set: crowd shot merged with pyramid interior detail, revealing analog synths, light boards, Ableton, moogs and laser consoles; Video stills from De Crecy's live 'Beats and Cubes' performance]

Everyone will be familiar with Daft Punk 's Pyramid (above), which set a precedent for performance architecture. Reevaluating the genre and straying from surface-mounted installations, Etienne de Crecy 's 'Cube' uses 3d camera mapping and 3 high-powered projectors that project onto a 2oft., 3x3x3 frame, covered in a fine net, creating ethereal, beat-matched light volumes in the dark. The lightweight construction is a refreshing innovation and is moreover cheaper and more transportable. De Crecy plays perched smugly in the midddle cube.


Cube Video