ON THEIA

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Thilo Frank, Infinite Rock, 2013. Steel, aluminium, fabric, glass mirrors, wood, rope, light

Installation view Sharjah Biennial SB 11, UAE 2013B

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Song Dong' Para Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2011

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Jacob Hashimoto, Superabundant Atmosphere, 2005

Superabundant Atmosphere, an installation by Jacob Hashimoto includes thousands of shimmering white “kites,” each handmade from silk glued over a tied bamboo frame. During the installation process, Hashimoto and five assistants will string the kites together and suspend them from the gallery ceiling, creating an enormous sculptural cloud rising upward and outward from the rear of the gallery. Although Hashimoto makes use of traditional kite-making materials and techniques, the small kites that form his installations do not actually fly. Instead, they are the modular units that he multiplies and arranges into structures that, while monumental in scale, appear to be weightless. As the light that streams through the gallery’s front window changes throughout the day, so too, will the appearance of Superabundant Atmosphere. Sometimes the installation will seem buoyant and ethereal, while at other times it will appear to be a solid mass. In any guise, Hashimoto intends for Superabundant Atmosphere to convey a sense of wonder and playfulness, as visitors encounter, walk around, and react to its presence.

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Tomás Saraceno, On Space Time Foam, 2012

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Alejandro Almanza Pereda, After all these years I realized that it is better to live outside the garden with her than inside without her, 2011

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Stephen G. Rhodes, Receding Mind: Circle of Shit, 2010

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La Machine, Aeroflorale II, 2010

For last year’s Bauhaus Color Festival in Dessau, Germany, the renowned French art group La Machine installed this towering kinetic sculpture, complete with hanging vegetation, propellers, fins, and balloons. Dubbed the Aeroflorale II, the 18-meter tall skeletal structure is the latest iteration in La Machine’s long list of theatrical projects, which seek to realize da Vinci’s theoretical machines, particularly his whimsical flying apparatuses, using the industrial aesthetic of Eiffel’s 19th-century iron constructions and the fantastical narrative of Jules Verne’s imaginary chronicles.

[ontheia]

Troika, The Weather Yesterday, 2012

LEDs, aluminium, custom electronics; 2,20 m (H) x 2,20 m (W) x 10 cm (D)

'The Weather Yesterday' takes our obsession with progress ad absurdum by sardonically changing our focus from 'forecast' to the 'past'. The five metre-high sculpture celebrates the weather as a predominant topic of discussion in british culture while offering a spin on the urgency with which we are using our mobile devices, forecasting and interactive technology.

[ontheia]

Song Dong at Pace Gallery

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Diana Al-Hadid, Tomorrow's Superstitions, 2008

Polystyrene, polymer gypsum, steel, silverleaf, paint; 60" x 48" x 90"

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Olve Sande

1. Possling Totem I, 2012. Timber, chipboard; 196 x 36 x 29 cm

2. Possling Totem II, 2012. Timber, plywood; 140 x 59 x 55cm

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Ann Hamilton, The Event of a Thread, 2012

No two voices are alike. No event is ever the same. Each intersection in this project is both made and found. All making is an act of attention and attention is an act of recognition and recognition is the something happening that is thought itself. As a bird whose outstretched wings momentarily catch the light and change thought’s course, we attend the presence of the tactile and perhaps most importantly—we attend to each other. If on a swing, we are alone, we are together in a field. This condition of the social is the event of a thread. Our crossings with its motions, sounds, and textures is its weaving; is a social act.

[ontheia]

Thomas Willis, Murphy Painting, 2012 Wood, canvas, gesso, and hanging hardware; 96" x 28"

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Soo Sunny Park, Bio-Structure: Metra-Geo (white dome), 2003

Plaster, nylon, light; 16’x17’x10’

The gallery is transformed into a curvilinear space with no corners by filling it with clusters of half domes, ranging from two to four feet in diameter. The clusters of domes within this curved space give the viewer the sensation of being within a contained space and vastly open field at the same time, where one can venture beyond their own physical space.

[ontheia]

Daniel Kukla, Captive Landscapes

We, as humans, go to great lengths to satisfy our desire for a connection with the natural world, especially in our interactions with wild and exotic animals. Zoos are the primary site for this relationship, but they often obscure the conflicts inherent in maintaining and displaying captive wild animals. In this series, I photographed the interiors of animal enclosures at 12 different zoos across the U.S and Europe. These images invite the viewer to question the role of these constructed habitats, and explore the motivations behind collecting, preserving, and controlling the natural world.

[ontheia]

David Schnell

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Sonja Vordermaier, Shadow 2, 2007

Basotect UF, paint, steel; approx. 18 x 7 x 4 m (59 ft x 14 ftx 23 ft)

Erich Hauser Foundation, Rottweil, Germany