2023

field projects, NY (US)

A sound-controlled scale with two hammer heads resting on two glass plates (ÉGO/ÉGAL, 2023). The hammers swing from glass plate to glass plate, propelled by the noise it creates. The work engages in a feedback loop, reacting to the noise of its environment.  Except as it gains momentum, the hammers’ force increases, threatening to smash its own glass base. As a viewer, there’s a certain tension within: the more sound that’s created, the higher the risk of breakage as the hammers violently ramp up their swinging. The piece, is based on finding balance, but at the same time, destruction. "égo/égal" was created for the solo exhibition at 'field project's in New York and was developed during the four months residency at International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn. The series of works are based on the concept around determinism and the contemporary topic of "self-care". All of the three works shown are models of kinetic sculptures controlling their own movement or process through energy transduction or signal input (such as sound). The kinetic sculptures share an almost obsessive (or maybe compulsive) fixation on repetition, cyclical self-reliance for energy production in seemingly never-ending loops. The works harness energy to engage in one singular motion—spinning, swinging, rocking, sawing — over, and over, and over again, until they self-sabotage.

text: Casey Detrow