TunnelTeller at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich
I visited Alicja Kwade’s TunnelTeller in mid-November and hope to do so a few more times before it goes on April Fools’ Day.
“TunnelTeller, her new work for The Trustees, is Kwade’s first large-scale public artwork commission in the U.S. The installation opened to the public on Saturday, May 19, 2018, and will be on view through April 1, 2020 at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich.” ( quote from The Trustees site)
“Alicja Kwade (born 1979) lives and works in Berlin. Alicja Kwade’s work investigates and questions the structures of our reality and society and reflects on the perception of time in our everyday life. Her diverse practice is based around concepts of space, time, science and philosophy, takes shape in sculptural objects, video and even photography. ” (quote excerpt from Gallery 303 artist’s site )
Against the Run (2019), outside the MIT Medical Building
Live photos are best for capturing the effects of this arresting artwork, but my format won’t convey that. Better to be in the presence of this two-faced clock; when its time runs out in the present location, it will move to Kendall Square.
“Sited on a patch of lawn adjacent to the Upper Courtyard, MIT’s newest Percent-for-Art commission, Against the Run, is a freestanding clock with a restrained modern design. At first glance, Kwade’s sculpture fits seamlessly into the surrounding architecture. Closer inspection reveals the clock’s unusual feature: although the minute and hour hands tell the correct time, its face rotates to the left while the second hand ticks counterclockwise one beat before returning to the twelve o’clock position. This jerky punctuation appears to jostle the entire dial counter-clockwise with each movement of the second hand—quite literally against the run of time.” (quote from MIT List Visual Arts Center description of Against the Run)
LinienLand (2019), Augmented Reality installation at three sites on MIT campus
These photos are my first attempts to share one of the three augmented reality sites with the Acute Art app. They document my unsettling experience of believing in a physical presence that then vanished when I put aside my iPhone.
“LinienLand is a temporary intervention in Augmented Reality (AR) currently in development and sited in multiple locations around MIT: McDermott Court, the Upper Courtyard, and Lobby 7. This immersive work consists of a gridded architecture approximately 36 feet in height, in which massive spheres rotate like planets in orbit. Kwade considers the structure as a possible multiverse in which each quadrant represents a parallel world within a mathematical, human-made linear system.” (quote from MIT List Visual Arts Center description of LinienLand)
Inside galleries include Kwade’s commanding elegant new Light Touch of Totality and other artworks, all structured to push beyond old assumptions. I hope to go again and urge others to get there before it ends on January 5, 2020.
So ends yet another post driven by the fleeting appearances of art, indoors and out!
Recommended Resources
Alicja Kwade: TunnelTeller on The Trustees site, Art and Landscape
Alicja Kwade Selected Works: informative photos of her indoor and outdoor work
At MIT List, Alicja Kwade’s ‘In Between Glances’ Asks Whether We Can Believe Our Eyes by Pamela Reynolds for the ARTery Oct. 15, 2109, gives very valuable perspective with quotes from Kwade
MIT LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER EXHIBITION: ALICJA KWADE: IN BETWEEN GLANCES offers lots of links, information, and context
Alicja Kwade website Great photos, background, and connections
At MIT, Alicja Kwade keeps the cosmic order with algorithms and art by Murray Whyte |12/11/19, Boston Globe
Art Outdoors 
Damn. I wish I lived closer so I could get to see these in their selected environments.
LikeLike