tectonic-industries.com

2008
NEON SIGN, WALL MOUNTED CUT LADDER

2008
12 Monitor Video Installation
Dimensions Variable
1 hour 28 minutes duration

An open call was held for volunteers to come and recount the plot from the original three Star Wars films, on camera, alone in the studio. Participants were asked to wear black and retell the story to the best of their ability. On twelve monitors, the viewer is confronted with the cacophony of people simultaneously recounting their interpretations.

[slideshow coming soon]

2008

16 Television Monitors
Dimensions Variable
1 Hour 58 Minutes Duration

Cinematography by Evan Drolet Cook

Images © Rik Sferra for Franklin Art Works

The desire to stay versus the inevitability of change is a sixteen monitor video installation produced in conjunction with the cinematographer Evan Drolet Cook. Sixteen participants were allocated a role from Alfred Hitchcock’s film, The Birds. Each was filmed isolated in their own home, watching the film in silence. When their allocated character had a speaking part, the participant read the line aloud from the subtitles on screen.

The filmed participants have varying roles in terms of the amount of speaking they need to do. Those who are speaking the lines of the main characters are active throughout the duration of the film, others are allocated bit-parts and have only a couple of lines to speak within the almost two hours of film-watching.

In the gallery space, the video footage was played on monitors, ordered chronologically by speaking part. The film is recreated for the audience without any visual cues, special effects or sound effects. Without knowing the narrative or the order of the speaking parts, the viewer must actively attempt to follow a dialogue across sixteen monitors, without being able to anticipate where the next voice may come from.

The desire to stay versus the inevitability of change was created for a solo exhibition at Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, in February 2008. A catalogue is currently in production with an essay by Ben Heywood, Executive Director of The Soap Factory.  

2006 – 2007
16 monitor video installation
Dimensions variable
 

The longer I sit, the less inclined I am to stand up is a video installation exploring our constant quest for self improvement and the celebrity cult of the chef. Participants are filmed cooking in real-time to the instruction provided by an episode of 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray. The process is documented with a hand-held video camera. The audio features the voice of Rachael Ray narrating her endeavours on the TV program, mingling with the cooking sounds generated by the participant.

This work was originally exhibited in 2006 as part of the Third Floor Emerging Artist Series at the Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota. Kris Douglas, Chief Curator at the Rochester Art Center wrote the essay for the catalogue. In 2007 the work was extended from eight monitors to sixteen to be exhibited as a Special Project at artDC, the inaugral art fair held in the Washington Convention Center in DC.

2006
5 TV/DVD Units
5 Coffee Tables 
Sofa
Dimensions Variable
 

Five participants were asked to come to a screening of the 1970 film, Five Easy Pieces. Later that day, each individual was asked to recount, on camera in an empty studio, as much of the film as they could remember. Each participant sat in one of five places on a sofa to recount the experience.

The footage from each participant is played back on a monitor placed on a table directly in front of the position on the sofa in which the participant was filmed. All the footage is played back simultaneously, and each dialogue is looped. The cacophony of noise means that the viewer must sit on the sofa, directly in front of each monitor to discern what each individual is saying.

2002- 2005
519 Polaroid Photographs (approx 16′ x 6′) 
Diagram Printed on Vinyl Banner (4′ x 8′) 
Video Projection (55 minutes)

My wife is so proud of me… is a project initiated in the summer of 2002. tectonic industries measured the grounds of the house in Wisconsin in which they were living and produced an aerial plan depicting the placement of the house, trees, pathways etc. A grid system was drawn up, dividing the property into 130 squares, each measuring 10 x 10 feet. From September 4th to October 14th, 2002, each square was systematically searched using a metal detector. When a metal item was located, a numbered flag was placed into the ground, and a photograph taken using a Polaroid camera. The item was then dug up and sealed into a plastic bag, with the date, time and position of the find recorded.In total, 519 items were found including a multitude of screws, nails, pieces of aluminium foil and bottle tops.

2005
Video footage (14 minutes)
Mixed Media sculptural reconstruction
Cibachrome prints on plexi 
Dimensions Variable 

On the evening of February 5th, 2005, various members of the public positioned on Medicine Lake, Minnesota, USA independently reported an unusual sighting. It would seem that some sort of UFO landed on the frozen lake, with two beings emerging from the module to survey the area. Based on eyewitness reports and testimonies, in conjunction with some out of focus video footage, tectonic industries created a reconstruction of this possible event.

Documentation of the reconstructed event was exhibited alongside the video footage at The Soap Factory in August 2005.

2005
Wooden rockinghorse, oak effect vinyl laminate
16′ x 10′ x 10′ 

2004
12 plexi domes (20″ diameter)
4065 wrapped fortune cookies
vinyl lettering

12 clear, 20″ diameter, plexiglass domes filled with wrapped fortune cookies are placed in a circle on the gallery floor. A randomly generated date from the next 100 years is positioned next to each dome in white vinyl lettering. The dates are arranged in ascending order, in a clockwise direction. The earliest date on the domes is 14th July, 2006. The latest date is 20th January, 2096.

2004
MIxed media video installation
Dimensions Variable 

White text on a black background scrolls ceaselessly upwards on a television or video projector. Seemingly random questions are posed with a choice of six answers to choose from, labelled A-F. The questions are not numbered, but there are 250 of them in total. The questions themselves range from reasonably straight-forward (Which of the following authors do you prefer?) to somewhat non-sensical (What is your favourite dental hygiene tool?). They directly refer to the questionnaires found in books and magazines which attempt to diagnose and resolve personality issues, relationship problems, etc.

The viewer is invited to participate in the exhibition by marking an individual score card with the letter-answer to each question. Wall text informs the viewer that they may answer as many or as few questions as they wish, but more accurate results will result from answering a greater number of questions. The score card allows them to check a letter category, A-F, as each question scrolls.

By totalling the number of each letter-answers checked, the viewer will be able to receive a somewhat personalised response and diagnosis, according to response type. Around the installation space, areas are labelled A-F with large vinyl signage. Viewers are instructed to go to the response station which corresponds to the letter-answer they chose the most frequently. At each response station, there is a brochure-holder full of printed cards, which may hold the solution to all of the viewers problems and issues. The viewer is encouraged to take a card and follow the directions carefully. If the directions are followed, the viewer is offered a means to rid themselves of all their troubles.

2004

Mixed media

Dimensions variable

A group of hand-made, life-size stuffed animals sit in a circle, facing inwards. Each animal is wearing a pair of bunny ears and a bunny tail. 

2004
Tent (12′ x 18′)
11 lifesize hand-sewn bears
Total dimensions approx 22 x 24ft
 

Images © Rik Sferra for Intermedia Arts

I never said I didn’t like you is a mixed-media installation commissioned by the Jerome Foundation as part of the Art Inside/ Outside Space Program at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis. 11 life-size, hand-sewn bears dressed in camouflage fleece outfits sit inside a large tent pitched in the gallery space. They are watching television, specifically the local PBS broadcast. Monitors in the gallery space detail the TV schedule for the duration of the show. Brown astroturf covers the floor. The gallery space is painted in two shades of green to match the tent. A lone bear dressed in two-tone green sits behind the tent, camouflaged to both the tent and the walls.

2003
Public Art Work/ Event
Dimensions Variable 
 

In summer, 2003, tectonic industries organised the 2003 Wisconsin Outdoor Squirrel Convention to coincide with the 2003 Wisconsin Outdoor Scuplture Invitational. The events were held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan, amongst 75 acres of rolling woodland.

The conference was a huge success, drawing squirrels from across the midwest, both real and artificial. Posters for the convention were posted around Wisconsin and the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Information packs were sent to a number of people, including a guest pass and a copy of the agenda to be passed on to any squirrel they may know.

Refreshments were placed at the site to entice local squirrels to participate. Attached to a tree within the convention site was a waterproof leaflet box, containing copies of the printed agenda. Priority seating was allocated for the first 75 participating squirrels. Numbered, laminated identity cards were clipped onto the branches of the trees at the convention site. The assigned seating was filled on a first come- first served basis. The cards with the lower numbers were positioned in the most prominent positions, near the chair and therefore central to the debate. Later participants and visitors sat wherever they found a space. The 75 cards allocating tree-based seating for the squirrels at the convention were spread over an area of four trees. Although the individual cards are colourful, the overall effect was designed to be arresting to the eye of a squirrel, whilst inconspicuous to the human eye. Discussion topics were scheduled for every weekend on the Convention agenda. Although no formal lectures or presentations were planned, the Chair, Dr Sarah Sciurus, was present to facilitate proceedings. Dr Sciurus was seated centrally at the convention site

2002
41 large rubber ducks on plexiglass shelves
41 information panels
Approximately 22′ x 8′ x 1′

There are forty one species of duck which breed in the wild in North America. Each species is represented in this work by an identical large yellow rubber duck. Each duck is placed on a clear plexiglass shelf which is screwed directly into the gallery wall. The shelves are twelve inches wide by ten inches deep. The ducks are placed on the shelf looking diagonally out over the front left corner of the shelf.

To the left of the shelf is an information panel about each species of duck found in North America (8.5″ x 6″), attached to the wall. The panel lists the name of the species in both English and Latin with other common names detailed. There is a paragraph describing the male and female of the species, including appearance, sounds uttered and any distinguishing features. Other categories covered include average measurements for length, weight and wingspan for both sexes; dietary habits; breeding behaviour; and information on the nest and eggs. A map of America is drawn at the base of the card, with red colouration indicating the breeding area and blue colouration showing the winter residence of the species.

2000

12 Black & White Photographs (60 x 80cm)

3 Acid-Etched Glass Panels (80 x 150cm) on Acrylic Cylinders (8cm in height)

In looking at the contemporary cityscape, tectonic industries were drawn to the notion of the non-place; the modernist architectural forms utilised for leisure, transit and commerce (for example the hotel, the fast-food chain, the shopping mall etc). These corporate exteriors and interiors are identical throughout the world, enabling the traveller to circumnavigate the globe and never touch, or be affected by, local culture. This world exists only in the present tense; it is timeless, locationless, directionless and largely featureless. In opposition to the traditional ideal of place, these bland forms have few connotations of history, memory, relations or any specific events or identities.

The starting point for A City To Live In was the creation of mixed-media scale models of the built environment. The models are generic examples of the non-place; they are not based upon specific buildings, but rather speak of a specific type of architecture. The models are then photographed, and it is these which are presented. The images produced are recognisable yet ambiguous; seemingly real yet speaking of the nature of the artificial. By greatly enlarging images taken as close-up shots of small-scale models the image is diffused and, upon closer inspection, dissolves into the photographic ground. This blurred quality suggests a sensation of movement at speed through the environment in which this artificially created architecture exists.

A City To Live In is a two-part installation consisting of twelve black and white photographs of models (60 x 80cm) and three glass floor pieces (80 x 150cm). Each glass panel stands upon clear acrylic cylinders, raising them 8cm off the floor.The glass is acid-etched and therefore relatively opaque. Upon this surface, sand-blasted shapes refer to cut-outs of non-places extracted from various city-plans. These forms function to fragment the map of the city. Roads, residential areas and all other details have been omitted, leaving only the plans, or footprints, of non-places. The details of these fragmented plans are more or less evident, depending on the lighting conditions within the gallery space; at certain times they are barely visible, at others the shapes cast shadows onto the floor.