Smarter, Faster, Higher?
« back to All BlogsBy Debbie Hagan
I’m reluctant to say it, but a lot of what’s called cyberart falls a little short for me, and I hesitate to say this knowing that the Boston Cyberarts Festival continues through the rest of this month. No matter how intrigued I am with the process in these pieces, some leave me longing for more “art” than “cyber.” New technology already impresses, I guess I’m looking for how it can transcend the medium so that it comments on the human condition and brings insight to this precarious life on this planet.
Take for instance, Smarter, Faster, Higher installed last week at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Massachusetts—up through June 5. Keithline, who has been weaving since age fourteen, creates life-size sculptures from woven wire using a technique she calls “lost box”—playing on the term lost wax casting. The artist weaves wire around an object and then the object is burned away so all that’s remains is a wire mesh shell. On these sculptures, she collaborates with her husband, Jeff.
In the installation, Keithline’s figures turn out to be human-like, yet empty. They emerge from the wire-woven trees, as one imagines they’re coming out of the Garden of Eden—symbolizing our beginnings and evolution. In the center of the gallery, a bank of old video monitors form something like a pool with their blue screens flickering. Narcissus sits on the edge, looking down at the monitors, which bear images of himself.
What does he see? A human that’s faster? Smarter? More highly evolved? Or not. These questions aren’t original, but they are exactly what everyone is wondering today. It’s a bit like a twenty-first century version of Paul Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
There’s a second part to this exhibit, A Tool Is a Mirror, curated by Keithline. Admittedly, I have not seen it yet, but the title makes me think of Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message.” There’s a great line-up of artists: Aerostatic, Sheila Gallagher, Dennis Hlynsky, Brian Kane, Duncan Laurie, Rupert Nesbitt, and Erik Sanner.
The Cyberarts Festival continues throughout the Boston area for the next month with Andy Zimmerman’s show continuing until May 22 at the Boston Sculpture Gallery and Digital Atelier at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Photos of Narcissus by Peter Goldberg and James Visser.
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