Stuff Moves at Boston Sculptors Gallery

Completing work for my current exhibit Stuff Moves, at Boston Sculptors Gallery, has kept me quite busy for the last several months.  The work will be on exhibit through March 11, 2012.  


Cate McQuaid's Review in the Boston Globe 2/22...


 "Also at Boston Sculptors, Kim Bernard’s “Stuff Moves’’ show is filled with oversize toys. There are wheels you can turn, such as the “Tertium Quid’’ series, upon which the artist has painted vortexes that look three-dimensional when spun. There are balls on springs that you can poke and shake, as in “Chakra Shimmy,’’ a spine of balls representing the seven chakras, or “Readymade Color Wheel,’’ Bernard’s wink to Marcel Duchamp, with balls mounted on a bicycle wheel.

These are fun, but only one-stop works. Those that rely on more complicated mechanics are more absorbing. “Quantum Revival’’ features balls resting on a shelf. Each is strung to a wire attached progressively higher on the wall. Unhinge the shelf, release the balls, and they swing through captivating patterns - a wave gives way to the balls alternating, then swinging together. It feels magical, even if it is simply physics."


See a 2 minute video
Read Ed Beem's review in Yankee

Readymade Color Wheel explores perpetual motion, which of course doesn’t exist, and color mixing with a nod to Duchamp and the subversive, playfulness of his work.  

Quantum Revival, an installation of fifteen red balls swinging from cables of increasing length that when ‘let loose’ fall in and out of sync to a choreographed wave dance.  

Dance of Shive, also kinetic, consists of twelve feet of elastic stretched between two columns holding horizontal rods that when displaced by the viewer triggers a wave of 200 red bouncy balls. 

Tertuim Quid, a grouping of three 36” diameter disks, spinning at low rpm, create the illusion of three dimensionality and dizzying distortions.  

Chakra Shimmy makes visible the Hindu/Buddhist energy/force centers and externalizes them as vortices at the same level height as the viewer's chakras.  

Harmonograph, a kinetic wooden contraption that draws geometric lines, when rods weighted with bowling balls move long arms that hold a pen over a rotating surface.  

Complimentary Vibration plays with optical vibrations, contrasting colors and physical phenomena.  


My present projects investigate the intersection where the hard and fast science of physics collides with sublime spirituality, playfulness and a pinch of humor.  This quest for the magical moment where awe is directed at subjects more powerful than the objects and the ‘aha moment’ happens in the hands rather than the grey matter.  These recent kinetic works invite the viewer to engage the sculptures’ motion, as an extension one’s own energy, and break the no-touch rule of art.

Come see Stuff Moves, on view until March 11, 2012

  

First Friday Reception:  Friday, March 2, 5 - 8 pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 12 pm – 6 pm