tele-present water, 2011 by David Bowen – Xiaoyu Liu

Gunnar Knechtel Photography

Most of David Bowen’s projects focus on the recurrence of natural elements. Tele-present water is gathering real-time data from a remote unknown location somewhere in Pacific Ocean and transmitting valid data (intensity and frequency of the water wave) to this installation. As described on the website “This work physically replicates a remote experience and makes observation of the activity of an isolated object, otherwise lost at sea, possible through direct communication.”

My interest has been aroused while taking a different perspective. I found it sarcastic of the form choice. He is using the mechanical grid structure to represent a natural phenomenon and deliver loneliness and helplessness to its audience. Why a obviously unnatural structure rather than a replicant of natural water waves? Why in a museum with all the unnatural surrounddings? Is it a parody to the mechanized world?

 

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