Sunday, March 14, 2010
Arts & Extras: Could this be the future of architecture?
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
The electronic wiring on the sculpture "Reef" reacts to heat, moving parts of the installation.
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
A sculpture/installation called "Reef," by Rob Ley and Joshua Stein, responds physically to the presence of Taubman Museum of Art employee Eric Philipkosky.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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Museum visitors who come upon "Reef" at the back of the Taubman Museum of Art's contemporary art gallery may at first be struck by the sheer size of the sculpture.
To me, it resembled a titanic feathered wing, part of which you can walk through. Co-creator Rob Ley said he's been told it reminds some people of a dragon, or an enormous fish -- it depends on whether one interprets the layers of plastic ellipses as feathers or scales.
The next question to run through a visitor's head will probably be, "What is it?" -- especially when he gets close and notices the nearest "scales" bending toward him, like plant stems bending to follow the sun, only much quicker.
Ley and collaborator Joshua Stein, both from Los Angeles, want the movement of the scales in "Reef" to call to mind the automatic biological responses of lower life forms, such as the flexing shut of a Venus fly trap.
In a way, it's a statement about how technology can intersect with art. Much technological development focuses on creating smarter and smarter machines. Ley and Stein's installment moves in the opposite direction. "We used a lot of technology to make it look like there's no technology involved," Ley said.
Yet the mechanisms that power "Reef" are in fact rather sophisticated. A camera on the ceiling tracks the movement of people in the space around the object. When someone gets close, wires made of "shape memory alloy" are heated by electrical current, causing them to contract. The wires are attached to the flexible plastic scales, so when they contract, the scales bend.
The degree to which the object will respond to a person's presence seems to vary unpredictably. "This thing is more of a cat than it is a dog," Ley said.
The exhibit also includes a small-scale architectural model that shows how Ley and Stein propose to use this technology. The model imagines a ceiling with sections that bend to let in more or less light depending on the foot traffic beneath it.
The pair, who both run architectural design studios, don't tend to think small. Stein mentioned that one of the projects he's worked on involved a proposal for a completely new infrastructure for Los Angeles, and noted that anyone who's driven there would see the need.
Having visited that city twice in the past five years, I have to agree.
If you want to explore further and see other wild architectural ideas, you can check out Ley's company, Urbana, at www.urbanaarch.com and Stein's company, RadicalCraft, at www.radical-craft.com.
"Reef," which will be on display through May 23, is one of five new exhibits that recently opened at the Taubman Museum.
The others are "American Naive Painting from the Garbisch Collection at the National Gallery of Art," "Unusual Suspects: Visionary Art," "Susan Jamison: Into the Forest" and "Brother Can You Spare a Dime: Prints from Depression Era America."
Admission is $10.50. For more information call 342-5760 or visit www.taubmanmuseum.org.
Little Town Players news
Bedford's Little Town Players will launch their rendition of the zany comedy "Greater Tuna" this Friday.
The play involves a series of dark-humored and absurd short sketches set in Tuna, Texas, where "the Lions Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies."
One of the production's gags is that two men play every single character, regardless of age, gender or species, with numerous quick costume changes. Actors Tom Baker and Jeff Krantz are tackling the task for the Bedford company, with Karen Hopkins directing.
If Krantz the actor happens to remind sharp-eyed folks of Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz, that's no coincidence -- they're brothers.
The company has also announced that the current Miss Virginia, Chinah Helmandollar, will make a special guest appearance at Friday's show.
Show times are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. March 21; 8 p.m. March 26-27; and 2 p.m. March 28. Tickets are $10-$12.
The Little Town Players also will be holding open auditions for its next production, a bedroom and gourmet kitchen farce involving mistaken identities called "Don't Dress for Dinner." Auditions will be held at 7 p.m. March 21 and 22 at the Elks National Home Theatre. There are roles available for three women and three men ages 25 and up.
For more information on the auditions, contact director Jayne Brill at qcjayne@aol.com. For information on both shows, call 586-5881 or visit www.littletownplayers.com
Market Gallery reception
The Market Gallery in downtown Roanoke is holding a reception to mark the addition of three regional artists to the displays there.
According to a statement from the Gallery, "Donna Ramsey Nevers incorporates archaeology, travel and her passion for the Virginia landscape into her mixed media works, Anna Wentworth's love of theater, travel and storytelling find their way into her oil paintings, and Cheng Fen Yeh blends Chinese and Western art traditions into her arresting watercolors."
The reception takes place 5:30 to 8 p.m. March 26. The new artist show ends April 24. The gallery is in Roanoke's City Market, at Salem Avenue and Wall Street. For more information, call 342-1177 or visit www.marketgalleryroanoke.com.
On the Arts blog
Learn about "Ferradiddledumday," Franklin County author Becky Mushko's retelling of the fairy tale "Rumplestiltskin" in a Blue Ridge Mountain setting, at blogs.roanoke.com/arts.
