The Wall People, 2021
Lightwell Gallery, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (as part of the solo show Human Pyramid)
Media: Plywood, house paint, cast concrete, motors, software, hardware, cast stainless steel bolts and nuts from Hand Tools.
Dimensions: each figure approx. 3’ deep x 4-5’ tall
The Wall People is a kinetic sculpture inspired by erector sets and were constructed using the Hand Tools (or Tools for No Master) and hardware. Figures move autonomously, sliding slowly up and down the wall, their joints pivoting.
Documentation photos by Isla Hansen and Jessica Morgan.
The exhibition Human Pyramid by artist Isla Hansen explores the relationship between body and technology, confronting the feeling of oppressive technological progress with objects of play. Through the use of digital fabrication processes and automated technologies in combination with the hand made, hand modeled, hand molded, and hand finished, the artist aims to reveal the myth of automation -- the often hidden human labor that is always a necessary part of using automated tools, often perceived as more technological than our own bodies. Human Pyramid explores the contradiction, absurdity, tragedy, and joy inherent in the human attempt to build worlds and control them through the use of tools and labor. Inspired by DIY home construction shows, erector sets and construction games, objects of play, sports media, and the notion of self-replicating machines, Human Pyramid searches for an aesthetic that reclaims the tools of oppressive systems constraining bodies at play and bodies at work.