Thursday, September 20, 2018

Data through Art with Analia Saban

   With both literal and content-driven approach, Analia Saban's solo exhibition Punched Card at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery reveals the transcendental methods of combining technology with art. Viewers are invited to question what makes a particular object a painting or just a piece of equipment used to store data and function.
   The highlight of the show was the upstairs gallery where works incorporated linen as an open surface to explore. In particular, Transcending Woven Horizontal Line (Black), held me in front of it with its bold minimalism. The artist took the time to weave the dried black plastic black acrylic gently between the fragile linen threads of the canvas. The moiré pattern that appears once you step away from the work takes you into the complex weaving and leaves you wanting to connect the loose strands of black that dangle off the ends of the canvas.
   The process-intensive art ranging from tapestries to pressed in Punched Card requires time to be spent with each piece to fully appreciate the number of layers that the circuit boards, memory chips, and paint themselves project. By repurposing objects used in modern technology, Saban shows a poetic connection of information being transposed in art. 

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed your survey of this show. I agree that taking objects that are typically considered just pieces of technology and re-contextualizing them in an art space is really moving. I think scale is also important here: sizing up such small fragments of technology does a lot in terms of forcing viewers to analyze the intricacies of items we use every day and tend to take for granted.

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