Robin Mandel - Sculptor

Certain traditions of theater reveal how the performance is created as it unfolds. Bunraku puppetry, mime, improvisation – these forms do not require us to suspend our disbelief and accept what we see as a window into a separate reality. We can see the puppeteer in black, we can see that there is no glass in the mime’s hand, but despite these rifts in the illusion we can see that the drama portrayed still resonates. In fact, the drama resonates that much deeper in its transcendence of the rifts that are left exposed. These theatrical traditions offer solutions; they solve the problem of evoking a coherent reality within a set of physical limits. The magic occurs when we become simultaneously aware of both the problem and the solution.

I want to bring this dual awareness to sculpture. Sculpture has the potential to conjure reality without a suspension of our disbelief. Sculpture can enact a drama that resonates despite its visible rifts. I want my work to generate an experience in which reality is not opaquely simulated but transparently evoked; an experience perhaps more fragile, but also (therefore) more human.

My work examines how objects can embody our domestic yearnings, and how these desires address themselves to the viewer. In my kinetic work, I explore how an object can literally perform for a viewer, and what the duration of this experience can mean. Household objects (such as the wine glasses in the piece Dinner) take on roles in an archetypal domestic drama, and their relationships play out through the kinetic mechanisms that drive them. The tension, the strife, and the intimacy of their interactions coexist in space and time with the structure that generates them. A coherence of object, sound, light, and motion creates a piece that performs its own reality for the viewer.

In addition to my kinetic work, I am developing a series of sculptures and photograms that read as outlines or contours of everyday domestic objects. For me, these pieces aspire to a sort of irreducible state; as an outline, or trace, Moving Box #1 refers not to a specific box with a particular history, but to an ideal instance of such an object: the Platonic box. The ideal form is essentially an absence, an unattainable entity. The viewer’s act of looking – triangulating between form, sign, and object – locates this ideal as a sculptural presence.

I have also undertaken several collaborative projects that integrate digital media and interactivity with sculptural processes. Some of these projects focus on gestural control of music and sound, as with frelia and jolastic. Another work-in-progress uses a computer-controlled mechanism to generate smoke rings; ephemerality, speech, and breath are key interests here. These collaborative projects are purposely wide-ranging, and allow me to explore different themes in an array of media. They serve as a counterpoint to my independent work, and ultimately there is no real separation – each endeavor always informs the next.

-Robin Mandel 2007



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		Certain traditions of theater reveal how the performance is created as it unfolds. Bunraku puppetry, mime, improvisation – these forms do not require us to suspend our disbelief and accept what we see as a window into a separate reality. We can see the puppeteer in black, we can see that there is no glass in the mime’s hand, but despite these rifts in the illusion we can see that the drama portrayed still resonates. In fact, the drama resonates that much deeper in its transcendence of the rifts that are left exposed. These theatrical traditions offer solutions; they solve the problem of evoking a coherent reality within a set of physical limits. The magic occurs when we become simultaneously aware of both the problem and the solution. I want to bring this dual awareness to sculpture. Sculpture has the potential to conjure reality without a suspension of our disbelief. Sculpture can enact a drama that resonates despite its visible rifts. I want my work to generate an experience in which reality is not opaquely simulated but transparently evoked; an experience perhaps more fragile, but also (therefore) more human. My work examines how objects can embody our domestic yearnings, and how these desires address themselves to the viewer. In my kinetic work, I explore how an object can literally perform for a viewer, and what the duration of this experience can mean. Household objects (such as the wine glasses in the piece Dinner) take on roles in an archetypal domestic drama, and their relationships play out through the kinetic mechanisms that drive them. The tension, the strife, and the intimacy of their interactions coexist in space and time with the structure that generates them. A coherence of object, sound, light, and motion creates a piece that performs its own reality for the viewer. In addition to my kinetic work, I am developing a series of sculptures and photograms that read as outlines or contours of everyday domestic objects. For me, these pieces aspire to a sort of irreducible state; as an outline, or trace, Moving Box #1 refers not to a specific box with a particular history, but to an ideal instance of such an object: the Platonic box. The ideal form is essentially an absence, an unattainable entity. The viewer’s act of looking – triangulating between form, sign, and object – locates this ideal as a sculptural presence. I have also undertaken several collaborative projects that integrate digital media and interactivity with sculptural processes. Some of these projects focus on gestural control of music and sound, as with frelia and jolastic. Another work-in-progress uses a computer-controlled mechanism to generate smoke rings; ephemerality, speech, and breath are key interests here. These collaborative projects are purposely wide-ranging, and allow me to explore different themes in an array of media. They serve as a counterpoint to my independent work, and ultimately there is no real separation – each endeavor always informs the next. -Robin Mandel 2007

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