B.
All change
Behind the scenes
Because not everything has to stay the same.
Rebecca Baumann Automated Colour Field (Variation 4) 2014. 44 flip-clocks, laser-cut paper, batteries. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, purchased 2014.
Automated Colour Field (Variation 4), Rebecca Baumann's constantly changing colour grid in the Gallery's Burster Flipper Wobbler Dripper Spinner Stacker Shaker Maker exhibition down at ArtBox is unexpectedly hypnotic. I've found (ironically, I guess) that you can lose track of the minutes spent watching the cards - powered by 44 old school flip-clocks - gently and unpredictably flip over, creating random and often very beautiful colour combinations. Though its movement is subtle and almost silent, it put me in mind of the frenetic arrivals/departures boards at airports, of which the one at Frankfurt airport is a surprising and vaguely disturbing example. Who, for instance, wants to get on a plane bound for 'LONDON - DEATHROW'?
Hannah and Aaron Beehre JS.02.03 'The Hedge' 2003. Projection. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, purchased, 2003. Reproduced courtesy of the artists
In its meditative feel, Baumann's work (which has recently (hooray!) been acquired by the Gallery) has much more in common with another work in the Collection - Hannah and Aaron Beehre's projection JS.02.03 'The Hedge' (2003), in which computer-generated leaves fall in reponse to sound - visitors' voices, clapping, finger-snapping, even song (hey, it's happened...).
Automated Colour Field (Variation 4), which was created especially for Burster Flipper Wobbler Dripper Spinner Stacker Shaker Maker, will be on view at ArtBox, on the corner of Madras and St Asaph streets, until 28 September.
Related
Collection
Hannah and Aaron Beehre JS.02.03 “The Hedge”
This work responds in real time to sounds made by the viewer. If you cough in front of it or walk loudly, sing or clap your hands, the leaves in the hedge gently fall, forming different patterns, depending on the duration and volume of the noises you make. Afterwards, when the gallery is quiet again, the leaves reassemblethemselves as they were before. JS.02.03 “The Hedge” suggests both seasonal change and a cycle of eternal return.
(Now, Then, Next: Time and the Contemporary, 15 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)
Collection
Rebecca Baumann Automated Colour Field (variation 4)
Automated Colour Field (Variation 4) is a kinetic sculpture made from a grid of battery powered alarm clocks. The artist has replaced the numbered panels that represent hours and minutes with coloured cards, which regularly flip over into new configurations. The work is in continuous motion, creating a constantly changing arrangement that tells its own time – and takes time to view. As you watch the cards whirr around, as they rise and fall, you become aware of the variety of colour combinations. You’re drawn to some, possibly repelled by others. Rebecca Baumann is interested in the emotional associations of colour. When she was making these works, she says, she was thinking about the wide range of emotions you feel in a day. “Everything is always about that perfect moment, but really life is just a series of many moments.”
(Now, Then, Next: Time and the Contemporary, 15 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)