Air - Daniel Wurtzel

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Daniel Wurtzel, Artist Statement  

On its most basic level, my work is an attempt to transform ordinary matter into something extraordinary, to bridge the conceptual realm to the material world. My point of entry into art making has been to use materials in ways that distill and re-present various aspects of their inherent physical properties, revealing unexpected beauty in a previously un-seen way.

I am interested in creating art that is experiential, interactive and constantly changing, and in these ways may bring about a state of trance or reverie in the viewer, much like watching a fire. Though mostly poetic in conception, my work has a strong scientific bent, and resolving technically difficult problems in sculpture making has been a hallmark of my career. Flight has been a persistent theme for me throughout my life, and as my work has matured, its manifestation has taken on ever more ethereal forms. 

Daniel Wurtzel's Website 

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Pas de Deux. 2011. Fabric, air.

Magic Carpet. 2009. Fabric, air.

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Cecily

Miss Prism: Do you mind if I take your picture? 
Cecily: No, I often like to be looked at. 

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

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Constructed by thepostproducer from vintage bedding, lace and ribbon, Cecily is a simple Victorian-inspired spring/summer dress.

"Through Art They are Given Life"

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay 

To mould me man? Did I solicit thee 

 From darkness to promote me? 

John Milton, Paradise Lost 

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Set of three interactive books which display characteristics of living organisms when touched and held. The texts are derived from various examples of early cyborg literature and are concerned with a human ability and yearning to bestow life upon inanimate objects and the inevitable danger of man's desire to promote himself to the role of Creator.

Frankenstein. 2011. Mechanical compontents controlled by an Arduino microcontroller generate a 'heartbeat' eminating from the centre of the book. 

The page displays an excerpt from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which Dr. Frankenstein reveals his desperate desire to not only generate life but also foster a patriarchal relationship with his progeny in which they would bless and shower him with gratitude for bringing them into being.

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The Golem of Prague. 2011. Mechanical components controlled by an Arduino microcontroller allow the book to 'breath'. 

 The text is an English translation of The Golem of Prague; a Jewish myth in which two rabbis mould and bestow life on a clay form, creating a miniature human-like creature or golem. 

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 The third book in the series, De Generatione Rerum Naturalium (2011), trembles or 'purrs' when held. The text reads:

"Since things are possible and must appear in nature through God's order, who would deny them about through the clever abilites of the art of alchemy and make the unfruitful fruitful, the untimely timely, and drive all things to grow. Through art they are given life, through art they are given body, flesh, bones and blood. Through art they are born, and therefore art is incorporated and intrisic to them and they need to learn it from no one. Because through art they came into being and grew up like a rose or flower in the garden and cannot be compared with humans but with spirits." De Generatione Rerum Naturalium

"The very capacity of an effective work to elude definition gives it power to live in our experience." Joshua c. Taylor

chiffe

chiffe. 2011. Hammered chiffon and electrical components controlled by Arduino microcontroller. Suspended fabric is slowly torn, pulled and manipulated by mechanical components.



Originating in the 18th Century, the term ‘chiffon’ denotes trimmings or ornaments on a woman’s dress, however, its French origin, ‘chiffe’, translates to ‘rag’. These definitions are useful in terms of conceptualizing the complexities of manipulation and abuse as both individual and national crises. As distinct components, the warp and the weave of woven fabrics signify various constructed dualities; the passive and the active, the feminine and the masculine and the mortal and the immortal. As a whole, they denote the veiling of the true and profound from sight. Drawing on these notions, chiffe constitutes a physical manifestation of states of physical and emotional turmoil that remain shrouded in each individual. The specific selection of hammered chiffon and mechanical components generates not only a physical tension in the tearing and manipulation of the fragile material, but an ideological tension between the mechanical and the organic; cold cyclical destruction and visceral vulnerability. On a macro level, chiffe points to the crisis of sexual and physical abuse in South Africa; while on a micro level the exhibition serves to embody the feelings of melancholia, anxiety and desperation that hang in the air as invisible byproducts of unremitting cycles of maltreatment between individuals. chiffe is an argument, a realiity, a cruelty, a campaign, a monument, a memory.