Handful
Reception with the artist
3/4/2010 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Alan Rath, "Handful", 2010, Fiberglass, steel, aluminum, custom electronics, LCDs, 80 x 25 x 48 inches
Haines Gallery is pleased to present Alan Rath’s Handful, on view in the gallery’s project room. In this recent work, the MIT-educated sculptor continues his captivating and often humorous investigation into the relationship between humans and technology.
One of three works on view, the title piece, Handful, employs a single hand as its subject matter. After photographing a hand from all angles, Rath used sophisticated programming to digitally link these still images into lively animations. Featured on three LCD screens, the images change significantly, never repeating. Heat-seeking sensors on all three of the exhibited works cause them to “awaken” to the presence of viewers, allowing for interactivity that lends to the sense that the work is somehow alive. Rath’s works often produce this anthropomorphic effect; In his Monocle and Eye works, two of which are on view, wandering eyes animate mechanical structures; His Running Man series features digitally generated runners, endlessly jogging in place within jar-like glass sculptures or frames. Many of these works are programmed to change over time according to complex directives (some evolve over 50 years). Despite the complex programming and engineering that make up his works, Rath’s sculptures have become increasingly minimal in sensibility, and continue to be beautifully handcrafted.
Alan Rath was born in 1959 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982. Rath moved to the Bay Area in 1984, working as an engineer with Oakland artist Milton Komisar. His own digital video sculptures and his subsequent contributions to the fields of contemporary sculpture and new media have received significant acknowledgement internationally. His work is held in several major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Hara Museum in Tokyo.