David Spriggs: Phenomenon
Brandon Vickerd: Sputnik Returned
Pulse Miami 2013
Impulse Booth: I1
The Ice Palace
Miami, FL, USA
Art Mûr is very pleased to announce its participation at Pulse Miami – with a solo booth of new work from David Spriggs and an outdoor installation from Brandon Vickerd this December 5–8.
Montreal artist David Spriggs work presents an engaging and original investigation of three-dimensional space. He has developed a unique method of layering transparent drawings to create the illusion of a third dimension. Although his mechanisms are simple and not hidden from the viewer, his work retains an aura of mystery and evokes a sense of wonder.
He has recently exhibited work at the Prague Biennial 5, the Louis Vuitton Gallery in Macau, and at the Sharjah Biennal 9 in the UAE. Spriggs’ exhibitions in Canada include shows at Galerie de l’UQAM, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and Rodman Hall Arts Centre. His work is in the permanent collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Quebec.
Brandon Vickerd’s Sputnik Returned consists of a replica of the first manmade satellite to orbit the earth, Sputnik, installed as if it has fallen from its orbit and crashed back to earth. Sputnik Returned presents a metaphor for the failed promises of a future predicated on scientific advancement. The stainless steel orb, resting lifeless in a crater recalls a modern day Icarus, whose faith in technology lead to hubris and imminent demise as he fell back to earth. This simple design, streamlined and reflective, seems to encapsulate the space race of the 1950s. Today this design appears as a wonderfully crude relic of the period, a potential unmanned doomsday weapon mirroring the excesses of the cold war while also recalling the proto-modernist sculptures of Brancusi.
Brandon Vickerd is a sculptor whose exhibited projects are diverse in form and content, including site specific interventions, public performances and object based sculpture. Projects such as Dance of the Cranes (Toronto, 2009) and Dance of the Cranes – Brooklyn (2012) seek to transform the cityscape into a stage for performance through choreographed dances executed by high-rise construction cranes perched upon condos developments while viewers watch from the street below.
