16 Apr TIO NYC: MAD’s Out of Hand a Must-See
Spectacular necklace patterned on the Julius Set, a chaotic mathematical arrangement. Contains 2000 diamonds and sapphires.
We arrived in the Big Apple on Monday, toast from a cross-country trip (in a truck. Long story). But, stalwart souls that we are, we hit the ground running on Tuesday, taking in several museum shows, the best of which is at the Museum of Arts and Design: “Out of Hand: Materializing the Post-digital.” Know the artist Frank Stella? His breakthrough color field paintings denied any illusion of space or depth and asserted the flatness and object-quality of the canvas itself. His shaped canvases blew raspberries at the notion a painting is something defined by the the four corners of a canvas (and frame). Though an immigrant to digital technology, Stella continues to push boundaries. Several of his new 3D works, featured in Out of Hand, are dramatic evocations of the harpsichord music of Domenico Scarlatti. Below is a review of MAD’s show by Karen Rosenberg that appeared in the New York Times.
Figure of man distorted using a digital algorithm.
If you haven’t quite wrapped your head around the concept of 3-D printing, or haven’t yet had a digital scanner wrap itself around you, now you can do both in “Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital,” at the Museum of Arts and Design. The technologies in this survey of computer-assisted art, architecture and design may not be entirely new; the Museum of Modern Art’s 2008 exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind” covered much the same territory and included some of the same artists and projects. But these tools are becoming more pervasive in both art and life, making this a good time for the uninitiated to get up to speed.
“Out of Hand,” organized by Ronald T. Labaco, a curator at the museum, is, in any case, an ambitious undertaking for this institution, long associated with analog craftwork. The show looks at art made since 2005 and fills nearly three floors, including many irresistible interactive projects. And while visionary design shows like that of MoMA are entrancing, there’s something to be said for a more down-to-earth, production-focused exhibition.
“The digital revolution that spawned the computer age is over,” the introductory text proclaims. “Forms that were once extremely difficult or even impossible to make are now easily realized.”
Reinforcing that point is a nude male figure with melty, distorted contours, a sculpture that looks more like a mirage…
Dress for burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese was digitally woven. Also two bodysuits in the show designed for Lady Gaga.
Continue reading here.
And to view the Stella’s Scarlatti “K” Series, watch this video:
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