EPHRAIM RUSSELL
November 10 - December 12, 2008
Nonobjective Configuration, digital print (left)
Patent Pending, laser cut corrugated cardboard discs (right)
In developing sculpture that captures a sense of usefulness without demonstrating the use, I have created a body of work that focuses on manipulating the aesthetics of consumer appliances and goods. Using this strategy, I have chosen, more often than not, to use various forms of technology to provoke the desire to acquire and collect. Technology can also be seen on a primary level in terms of the materials used. I have always focused on materials developed through industrial advancements or that are culturally associated with “the new” - materials that are sleek, durable, and futuristic. These materials include aluminum, plastics, and various industrial coatings. Beyond these material concerns, I also utilize active technologies in my sculpture, such as microcontrollers, LCD screens, LED’s, digital data players, and integrated power supplies. Along with employing these electronics comes the necessity to learn how to use them. This has meant learning basic computer language to program microcontrollers, and learning how to use specialized computer design programs such as Artios CAD, an industrial box designing software used in producing one of my sculpture series.
This interest in electronics and new materials has required a shift in the visual language that I use to develop and build my artwork. It has also required generating new ways of securing sometimes cost prohibitive materials and processes. Working with companies such as Smurfit-Stone and Wilsonart International, has given me a conduit to these materials and processes that would have otherwise been inaccessible. This industry relationship has allowed me to think outside the traditional context of sculpture and, most importantly, has allowed my work to include material and processes that allow me to fully realize the aesthetic groundwork I have been developing.
As our technological world continues to double processing speed every year, the integration of embedded electronics and high-tech materials becomes even more important to the growth of the contemporary language of art. In turn, the negative effects of technology can be seen just as clearly in the visual arts as in mainstream society. Although technology is facilitating social advancements beyond our wildest dreams and is democratizing the spread of information, it is also promoting gratuity, physical and mental laziness, product redundancy, disposability, and hollowness of experience. But, more importantly, as a positive byproduct of technology, we are being forced to employ forward thinking, to envision a future not yet in context.
Patent Pending, laser cut corrugated cardboard discs
BIOGRAPHY
Ephraim Russell is a visual artist living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is an Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Drexel University and exhibits his work nationally and internationally. Exhibit venues have included: Vertex List, Brooklyn, NY; Greestone Gallery, Lincoln, UK; The Fleisher Art Memorial, Moore College of Art and Design, and the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; King County Art Gallery, Consolidated Works Contemporary Art Center, and the James Harris Gallery in Seattle, WA; the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, WA; and the District of Columbia Arts Center in Washington DC. His work has been reviewed in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, Seattle Weekly, Seattle Times, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer, to name a few. Russell has taught at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA and at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. His professional experience also includes a position as the director for Foster White Gallery in Kirkland, WA and a directorial position at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. Russell received A Philadelphia Council on The Arts Individual Fellowship for Sculpture/Installation in 2006 and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University.
SCULPTURE DESCRIPTIONS
Patent Pending is a sculpture made from 500 laser cut and slotted corrugated cardboard discs of varying diameters. It is a sculpture that is designed to be infinitely variable within set parameters. The finalized sculpture is nonobjectively constructed, resulting in a large-scale molecular form. The fastening system is engineered using a simple slip joint building technique. Because of this simple fastening system, the sculpture could be constructed in the absence of the artist, with little or no instruction.
Patent Pending’s cardboard construction is a continuation of my earlier Prototype series which also uses CAD prototyping, manufacturing technologies, and corrugated cardboard construction. Inexpensive, temporary, recycled material defines the tenor of the artwork which diminishes notions of material value and virtue, in favor of invention, experimentation, and play.
The two Interferer sound sculptures were designed to generate an adjustable “white noise” in the gallery or exhibit space. In terms of real-world function, the imbedded audio jamming devices in the sculpture inhibit the ability to make an audio recording in the vicinity of the sculptures. My intention was to create an “evenness” of sound in the space in an attempt to make it easier to concentrate on the other artwork on view.
Patent Pending (detail)