Alexandra Limpert - Traffic
Show dates: September 9th - October 8th, 2006
Hours: Saturdays & Sundays 1:00 - 5:00 pm (and by appointment)
Opening Reception: Friday September 8th, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
NEW ROBOTIC HUMANOID SCULPTURE BY ALEXANDRA LIMPERT
Traffic , an exhibition featuring a new mechanical figurative sculpture inspired by artificial intelligence will open at HOLLAND TUNNEL on September 8 and will remain on view through October 8. As technology becomes more prevalent art seems removed from everyday experience. Ironically Limpert’s life-size steel sculpture entitled I uses robotics to interact with its viewers on a human level.
Traffic (a passage of persons, vehicles or messages through transportation routes) as a title is appropriate to the mechanical nature of this exhibition. While Limpert traditionally constructs abstract figures out of steel, her new sculpture I is a six foot humanoid with a system of internal mechanisms. A motorized heart provides a pulse to its anatomical framework of metal veins. However it is the sculpture’s moving eyes that ultimately give it the illusion of self-awareness.
I, a robot senses and reacts to its environment unlike ordinary figurative sculptures. Mechatronic Designer and Engineer Matthew Elliott installed a micro-controller to monitor a sensor triggering the AC motor heart, and to deliver positioning pulses to the servo driven eyes based on the proximity of the viewer. Elliott recently co-invented a wall-climbing robot in cooperation with a US Army research team. For more information please go to www.mechatroNYC.com
Alexandra Limpert’s art work has been exhibited in NYC and abroad. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and her work has been featured in ARTnews and the Village Voice. She received her BFA from the Parsons School of Design. For more information please go to www.alexandralimpert.com.
Since its opening in the fall of 1997, Holland Tunnel has gained recognition as a microcosm of local and international artistic talent. It has been featured in Art in America, New York Arts, Artforum and The New York Times. In the summer of 2000, Holland Tunnel opened a second gallery in Paros, Greece, in the former storage rooms of a 17th century merchant house where every year a summer exhibition takes place, usually with an ancient Greek theme.
