Wall Maze / Interplay; Mechanical Objects

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. This summer was super crazy with our wedding, traveling, and not being in my studio to make work. I did however spend one week packing up an installation to send to a really exciting exhibition!

The exhibition is called Interplay; Mechanical Objects at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition opened September 6th and is up until November 25th, 2012. All of the work included in the exhibition have an interactive component empowering the viewer to move the object from the realm of pure aesthetic to experience. The exhibition features artists from the United States and the United Kingdom; Alexis Archibald,  Steve Brudniak, Ben Cowden, Kevin Curry, Nathan Dube, Forrest Gard, Keith Newstead, Laikingland Co., Miel Parades, Gary Schott, and Martin Smith.

Below is a link to the exhibition guide at the Southwest School of Art.

http://www.swschool.org/events/category/exhibitions?scope=current

I was invited to participate in this exhibition and when the exhibition coordinator contacted me she specifically asked for Wall Maze. This is a piece that I created last year during my first semester at LSU. Wall Maze is an interactive installation where the viewer can move the ceramic tracks up and down to try and maneuver a rolling ceramic ball. There are 2 jumps which make the piece very channeling. If the ball successfully makes it to the end without breaking than it may be kept as a reward.

 Here is an image of my piece in the gallery.




Wall Maze
2011
Extruded, hand-built, and slip-cast porcelain, multiple glazes, fired, in an electric kiln to cone 6, hardware, sand.

The video footage below is from a previous installation of Wall Maze at LSU.  

The making of Wall Maze

 I wanted the tracks to have a specific shape (sort of "U shaped" with a tail). I had thought about molding slabs over PVC pipe and attaching the tail. After some thought, I decided that extruding the tracks would be a much easier and less time costuming process. I drew the exact shape that I wanted on Adobe Illustrator and cut out the shapes using a laser cutter. 

Here is the laster cutter at work making my template for the extruder.

Studio full of tracks being supported on pool noodles. 

Pool Noodle Support.

Thanks for reading,
Forrest