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| From Neurotically Zen |
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I've been making paintings with a pendulum since 2000, this is the 20th documented piece in the series, although I've used the technique for a few other paintings. This series is one of my favorite bodies of work. Every outcome is different, because I am always changing the variables. This one is acrylic and enamel on dibond. The size is 16"X32".
I remember when I first thought of the idea. Between my 1st and 2nd year of grad school, I had a summer job working in a factory on a press making door liners for Honda. I still remember the sequential movements I had to preform over and over and over again... While at work I had plenty of time to think, Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" comes to mind. I was thinking a lot about making scenarios, or machines, that would make paintings for me. For some reason, the mundane act of making hundreds of door liners inspired me.
It just came together in my mind. What if I attach an all-thread and weight to a 1 quart paint can, cut holes in the top, and one small hole in the bottom, and let gravity do the rest? The rest, is history. That day after work, I drove 3 hours to my studio to make the first one.
Since the first pendulum painting, I've experimented with paint additives, hardeners, self leveling mediums and have perfected a few 'recipes'. I've also experimented with motors, weight, degrees of freedom, and magnets in order to achieve unique results. I even wondered if this machine could make sculpture.
Pendulum Painting Sculpture, 2000
concrete paint on structo-lite
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| From Neurotically Zen |
It can!
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