in My Work

Fun things I saw this week (Interactive 1-Week 1)

Ernesto Neto – Célula Nave

Ernesto Neto is one of the installation artists that I admire the most because I think his work embodies the essence of interactive art (to me): the element of fun. Every one of his installations is immersive and interactive and he is not afraid to let the audience go all out with his works. As you can see from the image above, the audience will jump on the installation, allow it to engulf them and fully immerse themselves in the art.

This is a huge contrast to a lot of artworks we see which are interactive but have many limitations. Often when we see an exhibit we see signs stating things like “Please do not touch” or “Please do not enter”; while as artists we have to protect the works which we spent a lot of effort on, I also feel that there should be a mutual bond of trust and respect between the artist and the audience and Neto’s works has taught me that this artist-audience relationship is possible to have.

Célula Nave is the first work of Neto’s that I had come across and it is the most outstanding to me because I am attracted by the bright, fun colours used and the soft biomorphic shapes in the installation.

NEW MOON: Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett

NEW MOON is an interactive light sculpture which allows the viewer to shift between the different phases of the moon. What stood out to me about NEW MOON was that the lights used in the installation are all recycled light bulbs. The realm of recyclable art is something I would like to explore in my further works because I sometimes think that we do have too much in this world and we are so engrossed in creating new things that we neglect things we already have. Using recycled/recyclable materials does not necessarily have to diminish the quality of an artworks; taking NEW MOON into example, it is interactive and engaging and also visually elegant in spite of its use of recycled materials.