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Bee Kingdom Glass, “The Saturnian,” 2016
inflated polyester, 20’ x 40’ Photo courtesy of Bee Kingdom Glass
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Bee Kingdom's Phillip Bandura (left) and Ryan Fairweather strike a pose outside their super-sized inflatable whale-spaceship hybrid, "The Saturnian."
Photo courtesy of Bee Kingdom Glass.
A walk inside the belly of a whale-spaceship hybrid? A woman’s breast that lights up as you approach? Motorized flipbooks that create the illusion of a waterfall?
Your inner nerd will get a workout at Beakerhead, a Calgary festival that mashes together art, science and engineering in wildly creative ways.
The annual event, which runs Sept. 13 to Sept. 17, includes all sorts of technical wizardry, but perhaps none more playful than gigantic inflatable sculptures made from polyester by Bee Kingdom Glass.
Bee Kingdom Glass, “The Fabulist,” 2015
inflated polyester, 35’ x 15’ Photo courtesy of Bee Kingdom Glass
Part sci-fi and part childlike wonderment, both The Fabulist, a four-storey high “space ambassador” that brings together myriad Canadiana, including moose antlers and a beaver tail, and The Saturnian, complete with a narwhal tusk and rocket thrusters, will be on view outside Calgary’s science centre, Telus Spark.
“Both of the sculptures are very cute,” says Bee Kingdom’s Phillip Bandura. “But we hope people will look at the different ideas, what we put into the sculptures, and create a story around it.”
His usual fare is small-scale work made from glass in the collaborative Calgary studio he shares with Ryan Fairweather. But Beakerhead engineers helped the dynamic duo solve challenges around things like tensile strength, wind currents and public safety.
Bandura says artists appreciate such technical help, while engineers enjoy working on creative projects.
“The whole idea of Beakerhead actually really closes a very interesting social gap in between the arts and other industries in the city,” says Bandura.
Several Calgary galleries are participating in Beakerhead, displaying art that crosses into technological realms.
At Herringer Kiss, for instance, there’s playful work by Oksana Kryzhanivska, an interdisciplinary artist finishing a doctorate in computational media design at the University of Calgary.
Some of Kryzhanivska's work is tactile and hands on. “It’s resin-type, polymer-type material that can be squeezed and handled by the public," says Marjan Eggermont, who curated the show.
Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Organelles,” 2015-2017
silicone, plastic, wiring and actuators
The show also includes Under the Skin, a wall sculpture of a large foam breast with an embedded motion-sensitive camera that allows digital imagery to be projected onto the breast based on the movements of viewers.
Another piece, Silicone Valley, exposes a breast’s sensing and vibrating organelles, sensory points reminiscent of nipples and vulvas, says Kryzhanivska.
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Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Under the Skin,” 2017
styrofoam, projection, video camera and computer, 48" x 48" x 15"
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Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Silicone Valley,” 2016
silicone, plastic, wiring, speakers and actuators, 27" x 12" x 27"
As a computational artist, she examines dialogues between mechanical perception and embodied human experiences, using computer code as well as sensing and feedback devices.
“My sculptural works speak about the capacity to think with our bodies when computer systems, which relate to the physical world through data, augment our sensation,” she says. “These flesh-like sculptural interfaces communicate with sensory metaphors through tactile sensing, electronic response and mixed-reality environments.”
Eggermont expresses it more simply: “She has a really nice way of putting the really high tech together with things that are really fun.”
Meanwhile, over at VivianeArt, Quebec City artist Diane Landry explores light, sound and motion.
Fall, for instance, animates an image of a waterfall using a panel of 60 motorized flip books. In essence, Landry is inverting the force of hydroelectricity, harnessing mechanical energy to recreate the natural power of flowing water.
Diane Landry, “Fall,” 2017, mural with 60 flipbooks, motorized plastic, wood, paper, motors and motion sensors, 35” x 63” x 6” Video courtesy of the artist and VivianeArt, Calgary
Landry, who was included in the landmark Oh, Canada show organized by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012, constructs the mechanisms for all her works, often teaching herself new skills using YouTube videos, says Tara Westermann, the gallery’s managing director.
“Each of these flip books is wired to a motor, and when the viewer comes into the vicinity, the motion sensors go off, and the motors start running and these flip books start flipping,” says Westermann.
“The image of the waterfall starts to become animated and you see these water coming down as you would in a video. It’s incredible.”
The flipping pages create drafts of air as the motors whirr, giving viewers what Westermann calls “an all-encompassing sensory experience.”
Landry is also showing pieces is made from laundry baskets, water bottles and moving lights
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Diane Landry, “Mandala Perrier,” 2002
wall projection, various bottles of water, motors, aluminum, wood, halogen lighting and tripod, 39” x 39” x 20” Photo courtesy of VivianeArt, Calgary
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Diane Landry, “Mandala Naya,” 2002
motorized installation, wall projection, various bottles of water, motors, aluminum, wood, halogen lighting and tripod, 39” x 39” x 20” Photo courtesy of VivianeArt, Calgary
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“You have this incredible shadow play,” says Westermann. “She is interested in seeing what potential she can get out of the materials beyond their functional use.”
Other Beakerhead attractions include a giant Snakes and Ladders game, a project funded by Canada 150; and something dubbed the “serpent mother” and described as a fire-breathing installation with 40 pillars of fire.
For more information, go to beakerhead.com.