re-charged

i wasn't completely happy with the presentation of charging at its recent outing. i think the plinth was just too much. i don't really enjoy plinths much at all anymore but was thinking it might be ok for a commercial gallery setting - some sort fo fetishising of the object.

once i got the work back to the studio i took some photos of it sans-plinth. 

so now that work can be put to bed, probably the last sculpture with living plants in it for a while i think. in some ways this work feels like a transitional one, as if it is a step into some new work. more system influence, as with the elements combining to build something functional; less plant oriented from now on.


there are some plant drawings yet to come, but sculpturally for now, plants are a concluded material.

units

kindred spirits

as an artist, i find, you're looking to articulate a clear voice that resonates with other people, that hopefully can provide a catalyst for thought, stir ideas and generate interest in the world at large. part of that desire to have a clear voice goes to striking out a unique territory. to offer the world novel outlooks, unchartered explorations and fresh ideas.

sometimes, in that quest, you stumble upon other voices that share a similar pitch. that sing in the same register. with this comes both an excitement of shared expression, of finding other people engaged in the same explorations, coupled with a slight worry that you don't want to tread on someone else's turf. of course, this could be just me. but in my effort to attempt to add something original to the ever growing historical output of artworks i'm pretty keen to also ensure those in my field of interest don't have me stumbling into their own particular efforts and producing work that's already been done. i'm sure some of this concern comes about as a consequence of doing postgraduate research, where intellectual territories are well guarded. one must always site where an idea comes from, and one must always credit those that arrived into new territories first.

anyway, the reason i mention all this is that recently i stumbled on a work that i felt immediately connected to.  on this particular occasion, it is the discovery of an artwork that is similar to what i am about to commence work on. occasionally this happens and, again, it both excites you and makes you a bit hesitant. if only temporarily, until you realise the differences that exist.

here is a wonderful sculpture by mexican artist gilberto esparza, called nomadic plants:

gilberto esparza, nomadic plants

basically, it's a plant robot. the robot seeks out contaminated water in urban environments to feed the organisms living in it. amazing! 

my next sculpture is going to be a plant robot too. not as complicated and technically advanced as this, however, but a plant robot nonetheless. working with this idea of hybridising nature and technology, and confusing the power relationship in that coupling - is the 'natural' components driving the technology or is the technology driving the 'natural' components? or are they, perhaps, symbiotic? raising those ideas in the viewers mind is the driving motivation of my recent sculptures.

seeing this work by esparza inspires me to push myself harder to make work half-way as wonderful as this one, and it also keeps me on my toes to ensure my work is my own voice.

i'll continue to post documentation of the studio progress of this next sculpture and we'll see how it shapes up.

countdown

a slight delay in production this week due to a pretty heavy road accident - fortunately Lucy and I came through relatively unscathed, but my car is still being assessed for repair or write-off status. some idiot ran a red light on dandenong rd and plowed into us.

anyway, i always ensure my production process has certain time flexibilities, usually due to my sculptures having technical components that can be susceptible to glitches in the build phase. this flexibility has allowed for me to absorb a few days off to deal with the crash and stay on track with my sculpture for the 'Experiments on Plant Hybridization' at Dianne Tanzer Gallery.

a quiet saturday in the studio with the soldering iron.

today i completed a counter that will form part of the 'detonation device' in the sculpture. 

the plan is for the counter to form an interactive component in the work. it will be connected (hopefully, my amateur electronic skills are being stretched here) to a sensor that detects a viewer getting close to the work. the conceptual idea is that this detonation device will get closer to arming itself when anyone gets close to it. so, with live plants eliciting an energy that looks as if it is charging a 'bomb', any attempt to disarm the bomb only brings it closer to detonation. the implications or evocations of this idea are open for the viewer to consider.

i've selected some plants too - typical household plants, purchased from a large warehouse retail chain. the plants are little symbols of 'the natural' but really are quite removed from nature. propagated and cultivated via techniques of mass production more aligned to factory production than the natural cycles of life, these plants straddle both natural and cultural worlds.

the plants are pilea cadierei or aluminium plants. they work nicely in name as there is aluminium conductors in the soil of the plants for the sculpture and the foliage of the leaves echoes the patterns of the circuit boards of the electronics. 

electrical successes

there's something very pleasant about weekends at the studio. i think this stems mostly from the fact that my studio is on a university campus and weekends mean that there's no-one around. also, i think i like to work when the rest of the world is not - nights and weekends are always the most productive for me.

i finally resolved the fluctuating voltage meter issue. it came down to rethinking the power connections - in simple terms, i adjusted from a 'connection' focus, to a 'disconnection' focus. this emphasises a break in the circuit rather than a connection. problem solved.

 here the wires touching the aluminium foil connect the circuit and you can see the voltage meter in the background with a positive reading.

 and now here the second hand on the clock has dislodged the copper wiring and caused the circuit to disconnect and the voltage meter drops

the motion of the clock, its circularity of time, causes the fluctuations in the voltage supply. i can now rig the whole thing up (by hiding the clock mechanism) to appear as of the voltage is being read from the plants, which will be wired up with actual voltage running through soil.

 here i have run a 9v charge through the soil of 2 plants, interconnected by insertions of aluminium foil and copper sheets to complete the circuits

 interconnected here with the flashing LED light circuit i built

now that these technical issues have been resolved i can move on to constructing the actual sculptural piece and build the illusion/proposition that energy is being drawn out of the plants themselves and is acting as a detonation trigger for the branch bundle. 

plant hybridisation

very excited to get started with my sculpture for the upcoming group show at Dianne Tanzer Gallery. for the first stage i've collected together the basic materials that i'm planning to work with and commenced assembling them to see how to make them work.

a whole lot of electrical components harvested from hard rubbish

the ensemble of materials for this sculpture (at this stage) will be electronic components, plywood, artificial grass, fluorescent lights, speakers and living plants. this is a reflection of the materials used in the sculpture prewood_postwood (2009) that prompted my inclusion in this show.

at this early part of the process i'm just looking to see what elements fit together, a very intuitive trial and error experimentation with composition. i quite like the way these materials work together, i find them very pleasing to look at and for me atleast, they stimulate a few ideas as well. in a way, this first step is just confirming my choice of materials. next step will be working out how to integrate the components together so that they become more hybridised, blurring the line between where one elements ends and the other begins - a reflection of the conceptual approach of my current research into the ambiguities and difficulties in the relationship between nature and culture.

plant hybrids

it's been a busy week with writing - i had to conjure up a 3000 word sample chapter of my thesis - and my head is full of literary conversions of my creative material output.

"The expansive territory of nature serves as both a rich field of inspiration from which to harvest ideas and a prism through which to examine the swirling pool of our collective understanding."

on the good news front, i just got curated into a group show for the end of november. it's at a commercial gallery - dianne tanzer - as part of their progressive program of introducing emerging artists into the mix of their represented stable. curated by drew pettifer and gillian brown the theme of the show fits pretty well perfectly in line with my work - experiments in plant hybridisation - the title taken from an 1865 book by gregor mendel.

this exhibition affords me the opportunity to revisit a previous work - prewood_postwood - that was exhibited at c3 contemporary art space in 2009. 

prewood_postwood 2009

rather than just re-represent this particular piece i'm going to develop and refine it. so the plan is to make it more intricate, with more component elements, so that the integration of biology and technology is more intertwined and appears more co-productive.