~BLINN & LAMBERT . . ‘NEW GREY PLANET’ / MICROSCOPE / OPENING PIX

DOE, a Deer . . .

‘BLINN & LAMBERT: NEW GREY PLANET’
opened FRI DEC 15, 2017
the show runs thru JAN 14, 2018
MICROSCOPE GALLERY, 1329 WILLOUGHBY AVE 2B, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN 11237
HRS: THURS-MON / 1-6 PM

def, READ MORE: ‘BLINN & LAMBERT: NEW GREY PLANET’ – MICROSCOPE

YES !! OPTICAL !!!
YES !! EXTREME OPTICAL !!!
YES !! EXTREME RADICAL OPTICAL LIGHT / W. RED & BLUE SEPARATION SENDING THINGS REALLY – DIS-ORIENTING !!!
YES !! SCI FI !!!
YES !! SPACE TRAVEL !!
YES !! 3D SURROUND / COLOR LIGHT SEPARATION !!!

‘NEW GREY PLANET’ . . . left, EARTH FAR BEHIND.
& . . EVEN, SOME EARTHLINGS !!
WHO WERE UNABLE TO COPE, IN THE SPIRALING RED & BLUE LIGHT PULSING DARK, MYSELF INCLUDED.
EVERYONE WAS AFFECTED – TO VARYING DEGREES in the ALTERED SPACE / PRODUCTION.

‘NEW GREY PLANET’ . . is a surreal, primal, technically surround / experience.
Photos, whether still or video – are not going to capture that for you.
you got to go see it.
it’s ‘playing’ up thru . . . SUN JAN 14, 2018.

PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING:


BLINN & LAMBERT . . .
aka NICHOLAS STEINDORF & KYLE WILLIAMS

these 2 artist-scientists . .
“who met in the MFA Painting program at YALE joined as ‘BLINN & LAMBERT’ in 2016 to collaboratively expand their interests in OPTICAL media, special effects, digital projection, and computer animation – the latter of which is reflected in their name, which references two basic material surface options in a 3D animation software: reflective (Blinn) and matte (Lambert).”
~gallery


“In new sculptures, familiar objects of varying transparency and reflective qualities are illuminated by two projected streams of light – one red, one blue – which cast shadows on the gallery walls or ‘screen’ behind them to form a floating 3D imagery viewable with anaglyph cyan/red glasses.
Each work instigates a dialog among the real objects, their shadows, and their virtual translations.”
~gallery

*that is unless you were biologically / hyper-sensitive to radical light / & became radically dis-oriented by extreme cyan-red color separation / & just plain old ‘motion sickness’ prone !! is the only way I can explain it. it was definite a spectrum . . of tolerance.
at the worst end of the spectrum, you just stumbled & tried not to tumble into the pieces or people in the pitch black room . .
this constructed & manipulated environment was not navigational for all.

*I later came to realize, that though I might have . . a super high functioning / hyper-tuned radar . . for art, and art conception per se . .
coping with radically separated light projection – was not my thing.
there’s radar, and then there’s radar, of all kinds of other frequencies, I guess.

*at any rate, I definite fell at the extreme & failing end of the cyna/red coping spectrum.
the cyan-red separation had me color blind. motion sick. imperiled. fragile.
but, maybe that’s also part of the plan / the point being to achieve dis-orientation to varying degrees within the audience.
people were dis-oriented at different levels, but I know I was the worst, what a loser.
‘STRUGGLE’ . . was my mantra / damn you .. Blinn & Lambert !!

*re: dis-orientation / artist-scientists . . jokers !!
BLINN & LAMBERT knew exactly what kind of chaos they were bringing down on their audience, just look at those two, grins from here to there.
not to mention / space travel. and the 2 suns of ‘Solaris’.

*re: floating, lol: STUDIO GHIBLI – was !! part of the dialog !!
as in . . Floating castles, etc etc.


BLINN & LAMBERT, ‘Untitled (Broom, Out)’, 2017.
found glass objects, mylar sculptures, styrofoam sculptures, rubber ball, tennis racquet, drawing on glass, fabric, magnifying glass, glass table, steel legs, two video projectors. 82 x 80 x 84 in.

“The works in ‘New Grey Planet’ are situated within a loose fictional narrative concerning a space station / orbiting a newly discovered planet with two suns – one red, one blue – and the recreation room in which free-floating objects ‘from home’ can be found” . . inspired most overtly by . . . “Stanislaw Lem’s book Solaris.”

*I’m thinking . . they should have had text excerpts, such as these – put up on the walls, before one entered, you know like they do – in museums.
or as hand-outs.


at any rate, moving through the gorgeous / large, pitch black room, one definite had the intuitive sense, that something . . sci fi / was going down.


it was elegant, trippy.
real objects. fictional space.
kind of Jack Goldstein meets Chaim Steinbach and does a double take into . . Futurama.


there were also smaller ‘elements’ placed in front of the larger sculpture / ‘diarama’ units, which contributed to the spatial dis-orientation / peripheral vision / color separation challenge.


while, on one long wall . . a rushing / swirling, nature-referencing ‘video’ – further contributed to the spatial dis-construct !!

BLINN & LAMBERT, ‘Doe, a Deer’, 2017.
HD single-channel stereoscopic 3D video, silent / 4 minutes 4 seconds
edition of 3 + 2 APs
(price upon request / as with all the other sculptures)


this loop – was like: here, space trippers, are your biosphere memories of life on earth, fast forward.
don’t blink.


it was also an interesting dynamic – to see how the audience became active ‘players’ in the artificial light charade. moving . . random bio ‘parts’ / within the hyper-constructed Blinn & Lambert . . . drama of an artificial environment. classic black / cut-out craft-type silhouettes.
super diy / & in real time.


a school of fish ?
a torrent of leaves ?


you begin to pick up . . on the deer head.
a beautiful metaphor, it starts off so enchantingly . . . abstract !!


‘Doe, a Deer’.
I kind of felt like a deer, in that environment of radical optical separated light.
very fragile.
I know other people were stunned . . too.
different degrees of light tolerance / different degrees of . . separation.


THEO, and HELENE !!
a little bit rocky, but not – nowhere as overwhelmed as I was.
I was seriously – impaired.


JOHN SZLASA and EMMY THELANDER . . were laughing !!
I guess they move up to the front of line, for prospective space travelers . .
to interstellar planets . . who can cope. with two suns !!
one red, one blue.


and, yeah that was a ‘cheat’ shot – with the camera flash engaged.
can’t leave . . . ‘NEW GREY PLANET’ in limbo like that !!
it was . . a red and blue / far-out, WORLD !! for sure !!

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH