PICTURE THE SKY · KUNSTHAL AARUS · DENMARK

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“This practice-based artistic research project […] explores depictions and investigations of space in the overlap of scientific, aesthetic, and speculative realms, in order to re-think well known histories of space travel, computation, art, and astronomy to nurture more complex historical and material textures.“

Nanna Debois Buhl

Consulting with artist Nanna Debois Buhl on "Picture the Sky: Cosmic Code, Images, and Imaginaries", a solo exhibition at Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark.

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Exhibition Design • Consulting
Work focused on the placement of the artworks, considering general distribution, spaces and scale. The exhibition contains photographs, films, weavings, installations, and algorithm-based works.

Artist
Nanna Debois Buhl

Location
Kunsthal Aaruhs • Denmark

Year
February 2 – April 7, 2024

All images
© 2024 David Stjernholm

The project is developed at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Copenhagen University, Denmark and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and involves collaborations with scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute and Aarhus University.

In “Picture the Sky” photos, computer algorithms, video, and weaving are used to explore the sky, our fascination with it, and how we use it scientifically and speculatively.

The exhibition spans the ground floor of Kunsthal Aarhus and features three new constellations of works: Helios, Particles and Planets and Lunar. In a cosmic narrative, the exhibition makes surprising connections between Earth and sky, cyborgs and historical figures, individual heroes and heroic collectives, bodies and machines, craft and technology, scientific data and alchemists’ investigations.

Kunsthal Aaruhs • Denmark

Driven by interstellar curiosity, and informed by Buhl’s ongoing conversations with astrophysicists, weavers, programmers, and printmakers, her works in this exhibition connect local and global layers, drawing on vastly different realms of knowledge. Her sites of production are equally diverse: for example, the algorithmic pieces were conceived during a residency at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, while the meteoritic studies are based on images she generated in a nano-laboratory at University of Copenhagen.

Kunsthal Aaruhs • Denmark

Via solar photographs, woven diagrams, and computer-generated poetry, Buhl ponders how art and science func­tion as categories and knowledge systems, letting her works and experiments loose in a space where the borders between art and science overlap in fuzzy ways.

One could think of the works in the exhibition as a kind of “strange realism,” following what Ur­sula K. Le Guin writes about the genre of science fiction: “It is a strange realism, but it is a strange reality.”

Kunsthal Aaruhs • Denmark

TOGETHER WE ARE · UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO

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Together We Are is a public artwork by artist Brendan Fernandes, commissioned by The University at Buffalo, NY.

Nakworks's consulting focused on spatial perception at different distances and scales, considering the placement of the graphic elements, access and audience perspective.

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Consulting and project management for public artwork

Together We Are • 2022

Artist
Brendan Fernandes

Commissioned by
The University at Buffalo · NY

Graphic Design
Platform

Mural
Chuck Tingley

Copyright
(c) Brendan Fernandes

“Together We Are” is an open phrase. It can mean family, community, friends and chosen Queer community, as well as landscapes, plants and nature. The garden, here referenced through black-and-white photographic imagery of plants found in New York state, is an ecosystem that works together to support itself and thrive.

As do the words, the garden further suggests a space for compilation. In combining these elements with forms inspired by the body-based sculptures of the late Japanese artist Isamu Noguchi, it all comes together to form rhythms and movements, much like letters forming into words, or stories beginning to be told—even becoming the abstract bodies of the people that will come in and out of the One World Cafe. 

Brendan Fernandes

© Chuck Tingley

Nakworks's role included:

• Supporting the artist in selecting techniques and materials suitable for a permanent installation, and detailed planning throughout design development.

• Coordination and project management between the artist, the graphic design team, the mural artists team, and the resin panels fabricators. This included determining installation schedule and equipment, taking into account public accessibility to the cafeteria.

• With an awareness of the need for more sustainable practices, Nakworks strategized how to reduce material waste of the resin panels, using cut-outs to "extract" smaller and smaller pieces, rather than discarding them as waste material.

Materials

Acrylic paint (latex, flat) on drywall, with UV protective clear topcoat (water base, flat), resin panels and stainless steel hardware.

Brendan Fernandes is an interdisciplinary artist who examines issues of cultural displacement, migration, labor and queer subjectivity through installation, video, sculpture and dance.

Working at the intersection of dance and visual art, his pieces open up questions about hybridity of media and seek to problematize the notion of a fixed, essential or authentic identity.

EKPYROTIC STRING VI · NEW YORK CITY

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Ekpyrotic String is a fibreglass sculpture installed at NYU´s medical centre by Japanese artist Mariko Mori.It was modeled as a 3D form in Mariko Mori's New York studio, and then routed into fire-resistant polystyrene by Model Porex in northern Spain on a large scale six-axis router; it was surfaced, structured and cut into sections. In Factum Arte warehouses it was repeatedly sanded, filled and re-sanded until a perfect coherent form was achieved. It was then taken to a spray booth/oven where Airbus parts are normally painted and covered with layer after layer of a special holographic paint made by Lechler in Como, Italy.

[Excerpt from Factum Arte]

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Consulting and project management for the fabrication and installation of the artwork Ekpyrotic String VI, a permanent installation by Japanese artist Mariko Mori.

Artist
Mariko Mori

Venue
Science Building | NYU Langone Health · New York City

Engineering
Eckersley O’Callaghan

Fabricator
Factum Arte

Date
December  2017

Photography
Factum Arte

Copyright
All images (c) Mariko Mori

HIT BACK · NEW YORK CITY

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Steady Pulse is a project that transformed Recess into a club that plays host to a diverse range of happenings and interventions, including performances, movement workshops, conversations, and dance parties.

At the center of the club will be an architectural and sculptural dance floor, which will shift appearance and function as it acts as a platform for the varied events.

[Excerpt from Recess]

Hit Back is a sculptural and performance-based installation developed by artist Brendan Fernandes during Steady Pulse, a summer session residency at the NYC nonprofit Recess.

Nakworks's consulting focused on the development of a modular layout, to serve as dance floor.

The dance floor is not used exclusively horizontally, but also as wall or frame or stage, to accommodate dance performances, public talks, parties, as well as a stage-like view from the showing-window.

The choice of materials and colors, limited to grey felt, white coated metal and skin-toned plywood, heightens the focus on the dancing bodies.

As a result, the performances play with the blurry line between the dancers and the dance floor.

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Consulting and project management for a modular dance floor installation.

Artist
Brendan Fernandes

Gallery
Recess · New York City

Dates
13th July · 1st September  2017

Performed by:
John Alix, Khadija Griffith, Oisín Monaghan

Uniforms
The Rational Dress Society

Photography
Wendy Ploger

Copyright
(c) Brendan Fernandes

INTERVALS AND FORMS OF STONES OF STARS · DENMARK

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"Through a series of cameraless photographic registrations, Nanna Debois Buhl maps the biotope’s flora, fauna, and soil and draws connections between the characteristics of the site and its photographic representation.

Using historical photographic techniques to connect what is depicted in the images and how they are made, her photographs are inspired by the cameraless photographic works of William Henry Fox Talbot (1840s) and August Strindberg (1890s); images created in the moment of contact between the object and the photosensitive surface."

Site consulting with artist Nanna Debois Buhl on "intervals and forms of stones of stars", a large-scale installation on the facade of the Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.

Consulting focused on the placement of 3 wall photographs, considering general distribution, location and scale.

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Site consulting for large-scale installation

Artist
Nanna Debois Buhl

Location
Arken Museum of Modern Art · Denmark

Year
2017

All images
© 2017 Nanna Debois Buhl

The project is realized on the occasion of the exhibition NATURE (RE)TURNS

THE PAGE · TORONTO

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“The Page” is an immense public sculpture that aims to reflect on the history of the West Don Lands, while at the same time interpreting and making connections to the current transitional moment of development that the area is undergoing. Formed of white bent metal plates, the undulating form evokes a sense of lightness, where its movement becomes reminiscent of a scroll of paper.  A Morse code pattern is cut into the surface that is lyrically spread thoroughout the piece, making a collage of words that respond to the site. The Morse text runs from top to bottom, starting and stopping throughout the piece. This creates a directional motion that concludes with a footnote. Subtly placed on another part of the sculpture is the corresponding footnote symbol leading to a poem written by the artist that responds to the site and its changing state of progression. This tiny text is meant to be a surprise, a happy find, where the viewer can have a moment of intimate reflection concerning the work’s meaning in relation to the site and the current moment that they are sharing with this object. “The Page” aims to become a marker for the past, a participant in transforming the present, and a witness to a vibrant future.    

Brendan Fernandes

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Consulting for sculptural installation

Artist
Brendan Fernandes

Status
Selected Finalist for WATERFRONToronto Public Art

Location
Toronto · Canada

Year
2014

Engineering
Eckersley O’Callaghan

All images
© 2014 Brendan Fernandes

 Empty space
The Land
Supported by clay
Becomes
Stories
And then
Left fallow
Until
In this moment
Bodies move about
The Pages
And then
New life
Coming into
Transformation
The unknown
Stories
And then

Material
25 mm thick steel plates (Grade A36)

Finish
Off-white matte color

Three coat paint system (zinc rich primer, intermediate epoxy, polyurethane finish coat)

Width
3 meters - to meet technical feasibility of the steel rolling equipment

Length
7,5 meters

Length unraveled
approx. 18 meter

Weight
approx. 12,000 Kg

PAPER PIECES · NYC

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In PaperPieces, Wolcott uses dance theater, spectacle and papered structures to explore a world of awkward moments exposed, tender collisions, and mundane survival. The protagonist is a naïve in snow globe memories, a haute couture avatar doing battle and a woman balancing on the most delicate edge of love.

Wolcott sources the sensory and psychological connections we have with the material objects we touch, see, and engage with daily as a catalyst for composition and performance.

Together with her collaborator, sound designer Omar Zubair, they create a piece that operates like a series of cinematographic dissolves and quick cuts where density of narrative detail is delivered in complex blasts.

The visual, sonic and kinesthetic information ultimately compounds and subdivides, giving the audience a sense of being an intimate co-conspirator in the destruction and reformation of this paper world.

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Consulting for material and spatial design for choreographer Nicole Wolcott

Performance
Paper Pieces

Choreographer / Dancer
Nicole Wolcott

Set design
Nicole Wolcott

Sound designer
Omar Zubair

Location
Center for Performance Research (CPR), Brooklyn

Date
September 25-26, 2014

Photo
© 2014 Whitney Browne

THE PLANETS · QUEENS / NYC

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The Planets is a sculptural installation about our solar system, a source of wonder for both children and adults.

In the form of a planetary model, the sculpture hangs from the ceiling of a school lobby. The 8 planets and the sun are fabricated in colorful powder-coated metal.

The model is accompanied by planetary mnemonics, phrases used to remember the name and sequence of the planets.

The text for the mnemonics (inspired by dadaist poems) will be written by the students, and the phrases, made of powder-coated metal letters, will be mounted on the high wall in the lobby area.

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Development and production consulting for sculptural installation

Artist
Nanna Debois Buhl

Location
Queens · New York City

Year
2013

Engineering
Eckersley O’Callaghan

Fabricator
New Project

All images
© 2013 Nanna Debois Buhl

“My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.”


Perhaps.

LEGEND FOR BLINKING CITIES · BEIJING

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Nakworks and game designer Eric Zimmerman were asked to contribute a fictional map “legend” for Blinking Cities, a project of Instant Hutong.

Instant Hutong’s projects explore the Hutong districts in old downtown Beijing, threatened by development. Founded by Beijing-based Italian architects Marcella Campa and Stefano Avesani, Instant Hutong is a series of installations and events on the borders of art, social investigation and urban research. Their projects investigate the unique Hutong urban tissue, made of lanes and courtyard houses, as well as the community of people living within.

Blinking Cities is a project of Instant Hutong

Text written with game designer Eric Zimmerman

All images © Instant Hutong

100 BEGINNINGS · NYC

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Wolcott is working with Vanessa Walters, choreographer and performer for the music/art phenomenon Fischerspooner to create this multi-faceted new work. The two gather a cast of characters to use dance, spectacle and space to explore a world of awkward moments exposed, tender collisions, attempted fame, and survival in high heels.

Nicole marries her fascination with cinematography to her penchant for creating episodic pieces. The walls act as a shutter and lens for the audience’s eye. This structural component in motion reveals her attraction to fast cutting, intermittent work with sharp cuts between scenes, plays in perspective, sliding back and forth between scenes as they evolve, in and out of the imagination. The piece reflects her daily experience of life in the city: a steady hum of countless quick cuts panning in and out of focus.

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Performance
100 Beginnings

Choreographer
Nicole Wolcott

Set design
Spilios Gianakopoulos

Location
Dance New Amsterdam

Year
2010

Photo
@ 2010 Matt Murphy

[100 Beginnings is] Lots of fun in high heels.  An extreme performance getting an extreme reaction…..Two moving walls create rooms, corners, barriers, tunnels, hiding places and mazes, to make the whole thing feel very much like a dreamscape where things shift constantly and imperceptibly…Certainly, each of the performers give us something to watch and something to applaud.

Quinn Baston
OFFOFFOFF.COM
Dec. 16, 2010

INSTALLATION 1:2001 · FIRENZE

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Installation 1:2001 is a circular room of religious, ideological and philosophical books from all over the world.

The books are used as bricks to construct a temporary building, with their covers facing outward. A narrow entrance leads to the interior, where the white pages contrast with the colorful covers visible from the outside.

“10.000 religious, political and philosophical books that would have otherwise been destroyed were collected from universities and libraries around the world.

They were brought to Piazza della Republica in Florence and used as material for the work. Seen from the outside, the different languages, titles and colours form a rich collage. Inside all is just harmonious white paper.

The process and the work itself received a lot of attention. The installation was destroyed in 30 hours by the citizens of the Renaissance town. Although the books were written in languages they could not read, such as Polish or Lithuanian, all the books  were taken home and the installation continues in their bookshelves.”

-Sami Rintala

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Site consulting for large-scale installation

Artist
Nanna Debois Buhl

Location
Arken Museum of Modern Art · Denmark

Year
2017

All images
© 2017 Nanna Debois Buhl

BIRD CAGE · YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE · JAPAN

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Bird Cage is a 5 meter high cocoon-like cone, constructed from hemp rope and steel, installed in the harbor of Yokohama, during the Yokohama Triennale of Art.

Each day of the exhibition, a “bird” made of balsa wood was flown out the top of the structure, rising up to 10 kilometers on a meteorological balloon. When the balloon burst, the bird glided down slowly, its exact landing point dependent upon prevailing winds. Each bird carried five seeds (rice, wheat, soy, oat and bean), along with a message asking whoever found the bird to plant the seeds.

Responsibilities included on-site coordination and production management, as well as as the documentation of the process.

When pressed, from the works of more than 100 artists on show, I singled out Yoko Ono’s “Freight Train” and Casagrande & Rintala’s “Bird Cage,” two large outdoor installations located in bayside parkland behind the Red Brick Warehouse No. 1.
The Japan Times

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Project management and on-site installation
for the architectural group Casagrande & Rintala

Architects
Marco Casagrande
Sami Rintala

Venue
Yokohama Triennale

Location
Yokohama · Japan

Year
2001

From: Toshio Tsurui
Subject: I have received the seeds

Hello… My son is 50 years old. My son is working at the Honmoku Pier in Yokohama. He has received the message on 07/Sep/2001 pm 4:00 @ Honnmoku Pier A5 container-yard. He has received the seeds.

Unfortunately I don’t have a land to seed the seeds in my home.