|
This exhibition displayed a pair of interrelated installation
works. On thefloor of the tall exhibition room stood two identical
square steel basins, each filled to the brim with waste oil.
The oil contained in the first basin was transported to the
ceiling through a pipe by means of a pump. From there, it
flowed back into the basin in an even stream. Within the whitewashed
space of the gallery, this continuously flowing stream of
shiny black oil had the effect of a freestanding graphic line.
Only the colour changes and the build up of bubbles on the
surface of the stream betrayed the fact that the oil was in
constant motion.
Above the second basin, steel weights were suspended from
the ceiling by means of steel cables. These weights acted
like mutually repelling pendulums, moving chaotically above
the mirror-like surface of the oil. This seemingly impossible
perpetual motion was an effect of the permanent magnets and
electromagnets attached to the undersides of the weights,
just below the surface of the oil. These magnets made it impossible
for the weights to remain in the locations towards which the
force of gravity would have normally propelled them.
|
|
back |