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VS: Even though they look heavy, all the sculptures are suspended and thus have an ethereal, weightless quality to them. MR: We used foam for construction and wanted to elevate the sculptures to allude to a kind of rapture for the viewers. We wanted to communicate the idea of the cosmos as being open to possible change, a shift in understanding. This shift in understanding and physical shift in perception creates what we refer to as a “tactical exchange.” |
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“In the representational system, things stand for something else. Michael and I tried to find an alternative to that. Instead of showing something, we did something. We created a process. “
Michael Rees and Robert Gero, New York City, Systems rupture, 2012.
Painted polyurethane foam, pigment, 3D prints, 57 x 21 x 14 in. Courtesy of the artists.
In Conversation:
Vanessa Saraceno Interviews Michael Rees and Robert Gero
Over the past year, Michael Rees and Robert Gero have created a series of artwork based on the strategical play of a particular gallery space and the hundreds of interactions it can produce. Tactical Play Exchange, their first collaborative project, was on view in New York at Pablo’s Birthday Gallery through May 5th. The show moved to Favorite Goods Gallery in Los Angeles, where it was reconfigured according to the new space on May 12th.
This constant-action project begins with the architectural elements constituting the exhibition space—modeled with 3D software in different times and places by the two artists. This to-and-fro movement between the two artists becomes a “networked ground of play” in which the physical quality of sculpture is transformed into an infinitely malleable architecture of relations.
Vanessa Saraceno: Can you explain what you mean exactly by the expression Tactical Play Exchange?
Robert Gero: The play came out of the idea of humor and possibilities. Instead of having a concept and applying it, we wanted to produce the concept itself, to further its possibilities. We turned the gallery into an object itself, a 3D file, and then started interacting with it. Then we established rules for this game of positive possibilities and humor. For example: if you have modified something in that file, you have to share it.
Michael Rees: The thing is that with digital media you have the opportunity to see everything you or someone else has worked on. The record of it is perfect and permanent. This means that the work can continue to grow and change forever. As a work constantly in action, there is a very prevalent playful quality that goes beyond the network aspect of the work.
VS: You also defined this project as a “networked ground of play”.
RG: What interested me in regards of the idea of the network is its radical openness. There is dynamism in our work because we are exchanging ideas as well as objects.
VS: I know you previously worked with Joseph Beuys. How has his concept of “Social Sculpture”
influenced your work?
MR: This project in particular is very involved with the idea of Social Sculpture, as well as with the Open Source movement. Although we can’t identify much with the Marxist aspect of Beuys’ idea of Social Sculpture. Through our work, we discuss ideas that imply interactivity and a democratic attitude, but on the other hand, this project is between Robert Gero and myself, so there is a higher level of intimacy achieved. However, if our work took on a worldwide scope, it could be more closely bound to Beuys’ Social Sculpture.
VS: Indeed, this interactive aspect of your project implies the death of the author. To what extent does your collaboration worked this way?
Michael Rees and Robert Gero, Fidelity to finite systems, 2012.
Painted polyurethane foam, wire, painted wire, painted 3D print, 26 x 22 x 25 in. Courtesy of the artists.
MR: Barthes’ “the death of the author” is exactly the sensation this project provokes. This is not just about personal expression, but all about understanding all of the forces that exist between and around us.
RG: For the project to be successful, there cannot be any one dominant voice. As a play of ideas and forms, there cannot be any singular entity but an assemblage of multiple ones. All of our efforts are aimed at creating an open territory of play, of tactical exchange.
VS: Even though they look heavy, all the sculptures are suspended and thus have an ethereal,
weightless quality to them.
MR: We used foam for construction and wanted to elevate the sculptures to allude to a kind of rapture for the viewers. We wanted to communicate the idea of the cosmos as being open to possible change, a shift in understanding. This shift in understanding and physical shift in perception creates what we refer to as a “tactical exchange.”
RG: We wanted to suggest that these objects can continue to levitate and transform themselves for eternity. Fundamental to this project is the idea of things unfinished; everything has the potential to change.
VS: As a dialogue between you and Michael, would you say that the abstracted architecture constituting the project represent a language that is universal?
MR: In a way, I feel this project really has a lot to do with language and how we construct a language. But you cannot define the reality of a process, especially in this culture and at this time where everything is transitive.
RG: To me, the beauty of the visual is its indeterminacy. For a long time art was expected to say something, and language always tends to be representational. I want to be aware of all the dominant systems that are affecting us. In the representational system for instance, things stand for something else. Michael and I tried to find an alternative to that. Instead of showing something, we did something. We created a process.
