CYNTHIA-REEVES

Claire Watkins presents an exhibition of impossibly delicate, mesmerizing kinetic sculpture inspired by nature, the human body, and scientific phenomena. The show continues the spring/summer Art & Science series at CYNTHIA-REEVES.


Watkins often describes her kinetic sculptures as machines, and indeed they utilize simple technology such as motors and electricity. She has always been fascinated by science and nature, finding inspiration especially in the incredibly fragile and yet resilient complicated systems of the human body. As electricity travels through wiry branches tipped with LED bulbs, the electricity illuminates the tiny lights. The artist describes the process as reminding her of the way sensations, touch for instance, travel from the skin's surface through the nervous system to the brain, before we "feel". The piece is a hybrid of something completely natural looking, tiny tree and twig branches, and something distinctly unnatural, cool blue light. This tension and element of surprise is carried throughout her current body of work. In addition to electricity, Watkins also utilizes magnetism in her playful magnet "drawings".

In the series Watkins hides a magnet and a rotating motor behind the front surface of a box. On the box's front face she "places" magnet shavings, which hypnotically swirl in the direction of the motorized magnet on the back. If Watkins scatters the shavings, interrupting their path, on the surface, they migrate back to their previous central axis, and begin their slow rotation, yet again. Visually, the shavings resemble shapes and organisms in nature, from sea anemones to lichen growing on rocks. Watkins's sculptures visually incite the same amazement and sheer fascination one experiences when learning about natural and scientific phenomena for the first time.

The ART & SCIENCE series features works by five artists over three separate exhibitions, including Nathalie Miebach, Oliver Marsden, Daniel Kohn, and Sheila Gallagher. Please visit our website at www.cynthia-reeves.com for additional information.