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Paul Myoda, Glittering Machine:
Billowy-Thorny Sconce, 2010
Aluminum, thermoplastic,
high-powered LEDs, motors, microprocessor, circuit
30” x
12” x 20”
Courtesy
of Dorsch Gallery, Miami
PAUL
MYODA
Glittering
Machines
April 8
- May 7, 2011
Dorsch Gallery is pleased to present a
solo exhibition called Glittering Machines of works
by Providence-based sculptor Paul Myoda. The
exhibition will consist of eight crystalline machines, whose
lights and sounds are activated by movement. The
exhibition will be on view through May 7, 2011.
Since
2008, Myoda has been working on cybernetic sculptures, which
are dynamic, interactive works of art that investigate and
borrow from various biological systems (i.e., communicational,
behavioral, and environmental). In an age where the screen
mediates every single one of our computing experiences, the
field of cybernetic sculpture is in a break-out moment. Myoda
states the basis for this claim: “The graphic user interfaces
that allow us to interact with our computers and other
electronic devices are beginning to feel too narrow, too
constricting, too separating, too disembodied.”
Behind Myoda’s multi-faceted sculptural project is the
passionate conviction that exploring different ways for
computation to exist and interact physically in our world will
combat this century’s version of alienation. His work does
this beautifully and with an engineer’s attention to intricate
detail and functional potential. One of Myoda’s new machines
Billowy Sconce (2010) looks like a cross between an
intricately designed three-dimensional snowflake and a sea
anemone, rendered with clear plastic and metal parts. Once
activated, sensing a moving presence in the room, it shines
light in multiple directions, creating a prismatic sculpture
of angular crystalline forms, whose material is light. Another
sculpture, Ratchet (2010), its graphic clover-like
shape rendered in metal razor-sharp points, is utterly
threatening. Attraction and intimidation are both survival
mechanisms.
Sculptor Paul Myoda had a studio in the World Trade
Center I in 2001, so he is attuned to the movement from trauma
to utter disconnectedness, a feeling enhanced by living in a
city where, especially right after September 11th, one avoids
looking up, much less beyond one’s next step. Subsequent works
encouraged citizens to look up again. In 2002, in memory of
the tragic events of that day, he co-created a prism of
searchlights for the WTC site. Tribute in Light is now an
annual installation. In 2006 he proposed a synthetic star with
Julian Laverdiere called Urban Lodestar, which was
published in Popular Science, to give urbanites back
what they cannot see: starlight.
By
encouraging us to look, engage and respond, his works
articulate nuances of our own ways of being in this
world.
Paul Myoda received his BFA from Rhode
Island School of Design in 1989 and his MFA from Yale
University in 1994. He lists more than 40 exhibitions of
sculptures, drawings and installations. He has also written
for various art publications, including Art in America, Flash
Art, and Frieze. From 1994–2006, he lived in New York, NY,
co-founding an art production company, Big Room, and an
architecture-ideas collaboration, Myoda + Ruy-Klein
Architecture, and serving as an Adjunct Professor at The City
College of New York. He has received grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts, The National Science Foundation,
Warhol Foundation, and Howard Foundation, among others. In
2001, he participated in the Lower Manhattan Cultural
Council's World Views Program and had a studio on the 91st
floor of WTC I. In March of 2002 he co-created the Tribute in
Light in memory of the tragic events of 9/11, which has
subsequently become an annual installation. Since 2006 he has
been based in Rhode Island, where he is an Assistant Professor
in the Visual Art Department at Brown University, teaching
sculpture and new media. This is his first exhibition at
Dorsch Gallery.
DORSCH GALLERY
151 NW
24 St
Miami,
FL 33127
T +1
3055761278
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