Michael Rees’ new work is an extraordinary blend of high technology, animation, and physical sculpture that is woven around the narrative of absurd virtual life. These multi-limbed creatures are hypnotic as they move in virtual, animate space. The sculptures are literally plucked from the animations and made flesh. Human legs and fingers are joined to form fluid, acrobatic bodies that become sculpture, through 3d printing. The taxonomy of this species is surprisingly diverse. Some of the creatures are functional and some decidedly dysfunctional. They struggle in both states. They are combined and recombined to make a strange genus of some other species, some throwback or fast forward, released from the Burgess Shale.
MICHAEL REES
SCULPTURE: LARGE, SMALL AND MOVING
SHOW DATES: 9 12 03 – 10 18 03 OPENING RECEPTION: 9 12 03, 6-8PM
Michael Rees’ new work is an extraordinary blend of high technology, animation, and physical sculpture that is woven around the narrative of absurd virtual life. These multi-limbed creatures are hypnotic as they move in virtual, animate space. The sculptures are literally plucked from the animations and made flesh. Human legs and fingers are joined to form fluid, acrobatic bodies that become sculpture, through 3d printing. The taxonomy of this species is surprisingly diverse. Some of the creatures are functional and some decidedly dysfunctional. They struggle in both states. They are combined and recombined to make a strange genus of some other species, some throwback or fast forward, released from the Burgess Shale.
The exhibition includes a huge 7′ tall creature and a handful of smaller studies. There are also two animations which are the progenitors of the gestures which are manifest in the sculptures.
Michael Rees has exhibited his work in Europe and the United States both in private and public venues. Collections include the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Edelman Foundation in Luzern, Switzerland. He was included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and a solo show at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Articles have appeared about his work in World Art, Artbyte, Art in America, The New York Times and other publications.
In October of 1999 he presented his work in the French Senate in the George Clemenceau Hall at the Palais Du Luxemborg, Paris, France. In 2001 his work was included in the Whitney Museum exhibition BitStreams curated by Lawrence Rinder. He also won a Creative Capital grant for his collaborative project with artist Chris Burnett called a Sculptural User Interface®.
In 2002, he was included in Media Art, Daejeon-New York, Special Effects, Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, Dae Jeon, South Korea, curated by Lawrence Rinder and in Fetish Human Fantastic, Boursein Gallery, Istanbul Turkey, curated by Michele Thursz. In 2003 he was included in NOWN at the Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also curated by Michele Thursz.