Verena Friedrich, LABOFACTORY, and Finnbogi Pétursson | aBIOTIC

OPENING RECEPTION, Saturday, February 4, 2:00pm - 4:00pm

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Finnbogi Pétursson, "Infra-Supra (2014-2023)"

installation. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening Reception February 4th, 3:00 -4:30 pm

Before biosphere; before life, there were only the non-living, abiotic factors and a watery world.

The three installations in aBIOTIC abstract and synthesize the ethereal, scientific and mysterious behaviours of water. Technology, sound, chemistry and time are used to further reveal or extend fundamental patterns and laws.

The installations in aBIOTIC abstract and synthesize the mysterious and ethereal behaviours of the physical world. Technology and chemistry is used to reveal, choreograph or extend fundamental patterns and laws. Here, phases of water are a physical, structural and expressive material to be manipulated and used as an expressive tool: liquid, gas, solid; water, steam, bubbles, ice. Water is suspended, projected and directed. Water is the surface, the object, the medium, over, through and around which plays a precise manipulation of light, movement and sound, physics and chemistry. Manufactured or composed sound is an essential component of each installation.

Stretching through an isolated, gallery space, Sky (2022), Labofactory is a kinetic, sculptural composition framed inside a long, raised, rectangular tray. This landscape with sound relies on the manipulation of steam to produce ever-changing patterns and behaviours evoking a changing timeline of sky or ocean currents. Accompanying the choreographed movements is a digital soundtrack unique to New Media Gallery. The original composition will be created in the week leading up to the exhibition; composed in response to a moment in time and the surrounding environment. *Labofactory is Jean Marc Chomaz, Laurent Karst, Filippo Fabbri (composition), Greg Louis, all currently residing in Paris.

In an intimate, glass-walled gallery, The Long Now (2015), Verena Friedrich is a technology-based still-life, contained in a clear perspex box, sitting on a table. A single, perfect bubble floats inside the box, persisting long after all other bubbles would have collapsed; the rarified, artificial atmosphere holds it aloft for up to 2 hours. Friedrich’s innovative use of technology & science can greatly prolong the normal life of each fragile sphere. But, it eventually succumbs. The working technology that produces the bubble and evacuates the atmosphere of the chamber is triggered again and again, accompanied by the brief, violent sound of working technology..only to be followed by the wonder. This work builds on a long art tradition of depicting soap bubbles in still life or portraiture. Known as Vanitas, the bubble serves to remind us that life is transient and our demise is certain.

The largest gallery contains Infra/Supra (2016/2022) by Finnbogi Pétursson. An expansive, shallow, ground-level pool filled with water and black ink and subjected to sound vibration and light. This hypnotic soundscape incorporates a series of speakers delivering the equivalent of three hertz of composed, sound vibration over and into the planar water surface. The composed, pulsating waves generate a series of intentional, ever-expanding concentric circles and patterns in the water surface. Lighting serves to project these patterns onto the wall in the form of a series of moving tidal lines and shadows or ‘drawings’. Pétursson notes how his works express intimate connections and observations of his Icelandic environment. Three remarkable physical environments. Durational works that encourage us to observe and consider emergent behaviours, causal effects and interrupted processes. Conceptually rich, the works convey notions of primordial beginnings, environmental systems and conditions, a world or life in balance, and the potential of technology to affect change.