Home Fires Burning: Robin Mandel

May 20 – September 3, 2022

 

Robin Mandel’s sculptures are created from collected everyday items that are activated through the incorporation of electrical components.  In Red Giant, the largest featured work at roughly 8’ X 8’, wooden-head golf clubs radiate from a central steel armature. The center element of flickering bulbs emits an orange glow. The fluctuating light that emanates from the carefully balanced, yet sizable structure, suggests an encounter with an otherworldly entity. White Dwarf, consists of a spherical configuration of porcelain teacups and saucers attached to a steel support.  An internal bright light glows and dims as it highlights translucent areas of the bone china. The work invites a calm interaction as the change in light intensity seemingly echoes a rhythm of breathing.  

Mandel’s works also explore the perceptions of time and movement, while exploring the material quality of objects. Perched atop a wooden stool, a Plexiglas silhouette of a baby’s bottle, questions the limits of our perception. Mandel states, “To see one thing and know another—to grapple with paradox—the mind must find a way to allow for the impossible.” When activated by the artist, a flat cutout shape spins rapidly on a motorized disk, it appearing to have volume and tricking the eye with the illusion of being filled with milk.  

 

 

   

Left: ROBIN MANDEL (American, born 1976). Anecdote (Relative Strangers #6), 2018. Medium: wooden stool, acrylic sheet, paint, motor, light. Courtesy of the artist.

Right: ROBIN MANDEL (American, born 1976). Red Giant, 2015. Medium: golf clubs, steel armature, electrical components. Courtesy of the artist.

 

Press Release for Robin Mandel can be found here: ROBIN MANDEL_PressRelease