Johannes Girardoni: Off & On by NYEHAUS

NYE+BROWN

JOHANNES GIRARDONI

OFF ON &

NYE+BROWN

JOHANNES GIRARDONI

OFF ON &

Metaspace V2 Sketch

01 Nye+Brown is pleased to announce

Girardoni takes a more sympathetic

Off and On, a solo exhibition with

approach, through the transformation

Johannes Girardoni. This is the

of light waves into sound waves in

artist’s first exhibition with the

his light installations; turning the

gallery. The exhibition opened with a

viewer’s ears into eyes, essentially

private preview on Tuesday, May 21st

augmenting the deficient human eye with

and a public reception on Saturday,

a new partner.

May 25th from 6-8 pm. The show will consist of two Our eyes, consisting of rod and

interactive light and sound

cone cells in the retina allow

installations, inhabiting the east

conscious light perception and vision

and west gallery spaces. Having

including color differentiation and

developed a proprietary process of

the perception of depth. The human

sonification in which he translates

eye can distinguish about ten million

light into sound, Girardoni uses this

colors. This seems impressive until

technology to radically divergent

you consider raptors, such as hawks

ends. Dispersed throughout the daylit

and eagles that have the equivalent of

east gallery, Chromasonic Field-Blue/

night vision seeking the heat of their

Green is a series of semi-translucent

prey, who’s eyes are far superior to

cast resin beams. They are illuminated

the human’s in every way.

from within by high frequency LED’s, projecting artificial light as well as

The Perceptualists like Robert Irwin,

allowing the surrounding natural light

James Turrell and Doug Wheeler

to pass through. The installation is

have, for five decades created art

outfitted with sensors calibrated to

that tests the eye’s limitations,

measure the specific color frequency

strengthening our resolve to an 11th

emanating from the resin as well as

million spectrum of color and spacial

the ambient light. The sensors drive

perception. They have acted as a

a tone generator, which converts

stern wrap on the knuckles like a

the light information to sound,

strict schoolmaster trying to rally a

essentially making light audible.

student’s wandering focus.

These sensors also register the

Metaspace V2 Plan (left) Chromasonic Field Plan (right)

presence of the viewer moving through

Girardoni was driven to rigorously

the space, which further modulates the

investigate these ideas in his work

sound. The boundaries between natural

after traveling to West Africa. The

and digital phenomena are blurred in a

following is an excerpt from the

field of luminous sound.

artist’s essay in a forthcoming publication Time Space Existence, from

In the west gallery, Metaspace V2 is a

GAAP/Cornerhouse Books.

monumental sculpture in which visitors are invited to enter and participate

Coming back from Mali, I was

in an immersive color-soundscape

continually reminded how our culture

based on the frequencies captured by

is saturated by digital systems. We

embedded sensors. As in Chromasonic

use our phone’s intelligence to get

Field-Blue/Green, the sensors respond

us to the right place. That alone,

to the presence of bodies, creating

has shifted how we understand and

a feedback loop between visitor and

read our environment. The algorithm

work as the environment continually

behind Google searches detects

evolves. A raw aluminum shell provides

behavioral patterns, the sum of

the framework for the sculpture’s

which yields a digital identity

seamless interior, the curvilinear form

that knows more about us than our

scattering the colored light inside.

friends; or worse, more than we know

Girardoni’s Spectro-Sonic Refrequencers

about ourselves. We make decisions

convert the light waves provided by a

based on information provided

lens at the top of the sculpture into

by algorithms. My focus on the

sound vibrations that shift as the

interaction of light and material

light conditions change, which is also

brought me to the idea of reality

effected by movement within the space.

augmentation in art. With the use

Metaspace V2 is a space about space. It

of sensors and tone generators,

challenges our understanding of space

I could use an algorithm to make

and perception, questioning the border

light audible and push the whole

between the organic and the artificial

paradigm of phenomenological art

in our increasingly technologically

into the current context. If we are

dominated existence.

experiencing a work by James Turrell

05 or Robert Irwin, for example, we

light and sound installation The

encounter perception in its purest

(Dis)appearance of Everything was

form. We experience ourselves

included in the 54th Venice Biennale,

sensing. Even now, artists like

Italy. Other selected exhibitions

Olafur Eliasson work with perception

include Personal Structures at the

as the medium itself. The whole

Ludwig Museum, Germany, 30 Years of

history of art culminates there.

Contemporary Art at the California

As with the “death of painting,”

Center for Contemporary Art and

however, there is no end. The

Creative Migration at The Austrian

evolution, and this is where we

Cultural Forum, New York. His works

break with history, is that we are

are represented in public and private

now occupying a cultural condition

collections, such as the Harvard Art

in which we are not the only ones

Museum, The Progressive Collection and

sensing. Artificial perception

The Margulies Collection.

extends our own sensory apparatus at large and creates a new reality. An environment that we sense while it also senses us, and then changes as a result, heralds the end of the supremacy of our perception. This is the new now. Johannes Girardoni was born in Austria in 1967 and emigrated to Southern California in 1982. He received a B.A. from Bowdoin College in History and Art. He also studied at MIT as an invited guest artist at MIT Media Lab. His work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2011, Girardoni’s

ME SPA V

ETAACE V2

Metaspace V2 2013 Raw aluminum, fiberglass, resin, LEDs, sensors with Spectro-Sonic Re-frequencer 14 x 9 x 9 feet

Metaspace V2 Exterior

Metaspace V2 Interior

Metaspace V2 Sensor Projection

CHRO SON FIE

OMANIC ELD Chromasonic Field Blue/Green 2013

Resin, LEDs, aluminum and Spectro-Sonic Re-frequencer

93 x 4 x 3 in. each

SpectroSonic - Pink 2013 Resin, LEDs, aluminum and Spectro-Sonic Re-frequencer 93 x 4 x 3 in. each

OFF & PREV

& ON VIEW Nye + Brown

Private Preview May 21, 2013

Photographs courtesy of Eric Swenson

2685 South La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034 gallery@nyeplusbrown.com 310 559 5215 nyeplusbrown.com — Digital catalog published in conjunction with Johannes Girardoni: Off and On — Photography by Johannes Girardoni Design by Kyle LaMar