Event 2

For this second assignment I attended the 2023 UCLA DMA MFA TOWN HALL Final Exhibition at the New Wight Gallery. The event defined hosting a TOWN HALL as a "gathering of thoughts, feelings, and uncertainties that each of us holds dear behind our screen presence" and "where we could exchange our divergent voices about our collective personal struggles." The artwork I was particularly interested in displayed exactly that. 

"una máquina que sólo puede girar" created by Ariel Uzal

Ariel Uzal called his artwork "una máquina que sólo puede girar" which translates into "a machine that can only turn." I found the title of his artwork somewhat ironic because his artwork did not actually rotate in any sense. The movement of his kinetic art creating a tilting motion. As you can see from the photos, he used scrap lumber, construction hardware, steel, and a lamp to create his machine. It was generated by an electric motor. What you cannot see from the pictures is the motion of the piece. There was a moving platform at the bottom that moved side to side, tilting the structure back and forth. This showed what we talked about in class and how math is incorporated into art. The movement of the platform was noncontinuous and would swing in intervals. He timed it so that when the entire structure itself stopped swinging, the lamp would continue to swing by itself. Then when the lamp stopped, the platform would continue to move again. 

Moving platform at at the base

Ariel, originally from Argentina, wanted to put the emotions he felt about first moving to the United States into art. He felt that life in the states was very individualistic and hostile compared to Argentina. where he felt more of a community. The movement and thin frame of the structure represented his instability, always on the verge of falling but never fully tipping over yet. The lamp swinging by itself represented his solitude. He said the piece has fallen before though, and he was waiting for it to fall again.

Me with Ariel Uzal

I definitely recommend checking out this artwork. I had never seen kinetic art before and I was intrigued before I even spoke to Ariel about his inspiration behind it. It was something that caught my eye and although it was the same unchanging movement, I found myself mesmerized by it. I never would have guessed the meaning of his artwork just by looking at it. If you are going to an art gallery, I highly encourage not just viewing the art but asking the artist about their inspiration behind their work as well. 

Works Cited

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, p. 205., https://doi.org/10.2307/1575193.

“History of Kinetic Art.” The Mechanical Art & Design Museum, 14 Feb. 2017, themadmuseum.co.uk/history-of-kinetic-art/.

Kench, Sam, et al. “Kinetic Art - Movement, Artists, and History Explained.” StudioBinder, 9 Feb. 2023, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-kinetic-art/.

“Kinetic Art.” Wikipedia, 9 Mar. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_art#:~:text=Kinetic%20art%20is%20art%20from,earliest%20examples%20of%20kinetic%20art.

  Vesna, Victoria. Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&t=1s. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.