Extra Credit Event 5: Robert Gero Exhibit

Event 5 Robert Gero Exhibit

Robert Gero is an artist working with using mathematics in his art. His exhibit, called Infinity Structures: Paradoxical Spaces, involves the creation of a structure that has a stable exterior and an infinitely expanding interior. This seems contradictory and impossible, since how could a structure have internal dimensions that exceed its external dimensions? 

The exhibit spans the entire room

It would seem like it would explode. Dr. Gero's work tackles this problem where the structures have quantitative additions in space and at the same time  move and express a qualitative change. The result is an interweaving structure made of styrofoam beams interweaving throughout the entire room and rotating lights that simulate the beams' movement.   There is a background soundrack that appears to change in sound intensity as one moves throughout the room and encounters a change in artwork. Since we talked about mathematics in creating perspectives in paintings and drawings, the Styrofoam structures combined with the sense of change in the audiovisual perception  brought in a new way of defining perspective with three dimensional sculptures. 

Dr. Gero talking about his exhibit

Dr. Gero is also a philosopher, so he does a good job of bringing about questioning the traditional. This exhibit also reminded me of how black holes in space form, when a star collapses  on itself, its mass remains the same but the density increases. However, this example is not as paradoxical as Dr. Gero's exhibit of expanding interiors yet constant exterior. I recommend it, but the only problem with this exhibit was that there were too many students from other classes and this made it hard to move about to take pictures. 

Me with the artwork and Dr. Gero to the right and background of the photo 

Extra Credit Event 4 LACMA

Event 4 LACMA

I visited the LA County Museum as an extra credit event. The museum has a variety of artwork that ties the topics of art to math, science, technology, and medicine. Its entrance contains a huge sculpture called Smoke by Tony Smith, first designed in 1967 and recently fabricated using aluminum in 2005. Smith describes his design in 1962 as "interruptions in an notherwise unbroken flow of space". Its  hexagonal and tetrahedral structure is mathematical, similar to how geometry is used to create the perspective views in  art . 

Smoke by Tony Smith

Another example that was relevant to the class in the LACMA is medicine in relation to art. Kienholz's Illegal Operation looks on the concept of abortion in the past where the operations were not done professionally and rather in dangerous conditions as seen through the chair and dirty medical equipment. Kienholz's work is an intersection of medicine and art. Through this work he protests the state of abortion during his time in the 1960's where abortions were illegal and women had to look to illicit means to get an abortion.

Illegal Operation with functional lamp, chair, and dirty medical equipment to left of the photo

A work similar to what I saw at the Fowler Museum's Making Strange exhibit was the mass of car chassis put together to form a sculpture. Like Making Strange, this exhibit recycled waste to form art, except in this exhibit, the waste was technology waste rather than medical items waste. Another work that involved technology were the Islamic inscriptions  praising Allah that were formed by shaping neon lamps. The use of placing a special mirror behind one of these inscriptions to give the appearance of infinite inscriptions also shows the mathematical concept of infinity and shows the use of mathematics in bringing out artistic techniques. The displays of technology to form art reminds me of how closely these two fields are linked.

Car Parts Sculpture

Neon Inscription stating God is Alive, He Shall Not Die 

Overall, the museum contains many examples of art, science, and technology and I recommend it if you wish to see more examples not mentioned in class. One only has to look for them since there are other examples of art only. 

A copy of my admission ticket into LACMA

Event 3 Hammer Museum

Event 3 Hammer Museum

I visited the Hammer Museum for the third event,  and visited the Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio and Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio.

British Designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio designs and produces small to monumental sized projects in the forms ranging from public sculpture to architecture. The work of Heatherwick and the studio is an example of combining function and art for the public's use. For example, one of the studio's designs is Zeitz MOCCA. It is a museum celebrating contemporary African Art and is being built on the site where a grain silo stood in Cape Town, South Africa. To also celebrate the grain silo's historical significance, the studio designed the building to have 42 enormous concrete tubes along with much glass paneling to celebrate both historical and contemporary culture. Other works that have been realized is the rolling bridge that people use to cross the Grand Union Canal. A scaled model for a similar type of bridge for the larger Thames River is proposed in this exhibit too. Most recognizable to me was the 2012 Summer Olympics Cauldron. The 204 "petals" close together as a flower, but also functioned as the torch for the Olympic Games in London. Thus the petals form the artwork, but the cauldron also had to be designed to pipe fuel to sustain the fire and withstand the heat. 

Zeitz MOCCA model

Thames River Rolling Bridge Model

Petal from the 2012 Summer Olympics Cauldron

2012 Summer Olympics Cauldron Model

The other exhibit was Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio. This exhibit is a sculptural model for a catchment of the Los Angeles River water via a waterwheel that will be built this year in Downtown Los Angeles. It is called The Catch and has the sounds that the waterwheel will make as it functions to reroute some of the water back to the city. The water lens creates a reflection that is similar to reflections of water as the wheel will carry. Given the current talk of water conservation in California, the Catch is meant to make viewers think of the new methods to bring freshwater back into cities. 

The Catch

The Device that Creates the Waves of the Catch

Thus what I learned from these exhibits was the impact of contemporary styles of art and architecture on society.  Even though they are already prevalent and part of culture, we might not notice right away the science and art that was involved in designing them. I would recommend the Hammer Museum to classmates.

Me with a Hammer Museum Employee