Red encantada (Mx)/ Enchanted Loom (Mtl)
La Clínica, Mexico D.F., 2011
Galerie B-312, Montreal, 2012
“Blurring the boundaries between artificial and living, interactivity allows for the development of the experience of Enchanted Loom over time.”
— Mathieu Ménard, Galerie B-312
The genesis of this work consists of a set of five translucent objects that the artist had the opportunity to create with glass blowers during an artist residency in Mexico. With their appearance, these spheres equipped with small openings evoke cellular imagery. Suspended in the exhibition space, the objects unfurl through long transparent tubes connected to the five glass “cores.” Each object is equipped with light-emitting diodes and a fan, all connected to a set of sensors and programmable electronic devices. Depending on the captured information, one perceives a rustling, a variation in the light flux.
Enchanted Loom reflects the artist’s interest in various disciplines including reactive architecture and biology, as well as her attention to the choice and work of materials. At the same time, Rosalie D. Gagné echoes biomimicry, an approach to technological development inspired by living beings and their ecosystems.
Blurring the boundaries between artificial and living, interactivity allows for the development of the experience of Enchanted Loom over time. The exchanges of action/reaction between the viewer and the installation modulate the perception of the artwork and the space it occupies. To discover how a blend of glass and electronics comes to life through intriguing mechanics, a visit to the gallery is essential.
— Mathieu Ménard for B-312 Gallery
The expression Enchanted Loom refers to the metaphor used by the neuroscientist Charles S. Sherrington to describe the activity of the brain upon awakening.
“The great topmost sheet of the mass, that where hardly a light had twinkled or moved, becomes now a sparkling field of rhythmic flashing points with trains of traveling sparks hurrying hither and thither. The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning. It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head mass becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of sub patterns.”
— Charles S. Sherrington, 1942, Man on his nature
Variable size, approximately: 250 x 300 x 300 cm
Polyethylene, blowers, vinyl tubing microcontroller and motion detector.
Electronics and coding: Samuel St-Aubin
Photos: Victor Giron
LINKS