What Is Seen and Unseen, 2 Exhibitions at Locust Projects Deserve Attention

Alba Triana’s multisensory kinetic installation captures the power of the unseen through art and science in the Project Room at Locust Projects through Thursday, Jan. 23. The artist will be part of a panel discussion on the closing night of the exhibition. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan/Locust Projects)

What sounds like clocks, chimes, and bells fills the Project Room at Locust Projects but there’s so much more than meets the eye and the ear in Alba Triana’s site-specific installation.

On four walls are a series of magnetic spheres and copper coils wound around the back of small metal plates and attached to the wall by aluminum rods  — 86 coils to be exact along with 43 pendulums. The spheres swing, tapping against the metal and coils. Snug against the wall at the floor are various electronic boxes where random analog numbers show a probabilistic code, according to the Miami-based Colombian-born sound and intermedia artist. “Do you see when the LEDs turn off?” she asks.

Alba Triana has always been fascinated by mathematics, which she incorporates into her kinetic sound installation, which is also informed by her professional career as a music composer. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

The “off” signals that the copper coils, receiving voltage from circuits, have emitted an electromagnetic field, she explains.  The probabilistic code is used to control the on and off times of the voltage, based on the frequency of the pendulation.

It is a treat to do a deep dive into Triana’s process of “Dialogue with the Primordial Sea” with the sound artist as she walks around the large space. The exhibition is on view through Thursday, Jan. 23 and was commissioned by Locust Projects as part of the Knight Digital Commission series. The intricacy of her creation is a source of endless conversation. There’s a “wow” factor about the work being a treat for the ears and the eyes.

While that is true, she is quick to explain “I’m not so committed to a comparison to the eyes or the ears. I’m committed to whatever manifestation the work has. If it is auditory, it will be auditory or if it’s auditory and visual then . . .I try to follow the pieces instead of me imposing an idea,” adding that she creates the conditions that allow the art to self-generate and evolve.

“In this particular installation, I’m exploring the relationship between that ethereal, vibrational substance that governs and constitutes everything and our tangible surroundings, the main material in this installation, we cannot perceive – it is electromagnetic and gravity. And, yet, while we cannot perceive it, we know that it is there because it interacts with the sphere and the sphere is attracted to it.”

“Dialogue with the Primordial Sea” at Locust Projects through Thursday, Jan. 23 features a series of magnetic spheres that alternately levitate or pendulate as they interact with invisible magnetic fields (Photo by Pedro Wazzan/courtesy of Locust Projects)

When the voltage stops, the magnetic field disappears, and the pendulum is propelled by gravity.

“Yes, it is a sound installation. It’s a choreographic piece, it’s a performance. It can be understood as many things. I want this not to be defined by what type of artwork it is because I’m trying to manifest the universe as a unified whole in which everything is interrelated.”

Still, there’s no denying the musicality of the creation and it is not coincidence. Triana’s paternal grandfather was one of the founders of the symphonic orchestra in Colombia and she studied at a conservatory from an early age –violin and piano. She also attended an experimental elementary school “where I was always involved in different forms of art.”

She received a bachelor’s degree at Javeriana University in Colombia, then at the California Institute of Arts (CalArts) a double emphasis master’s degree, and pursued Ph.D. studies at University of California San Diego. After working as college professor and consultant for the Colombian Ministry of Culture, she dedicated herself to a career in composition working as a composer creating music for symphonic instruments and electronic music. “Not pop music but more experimental,” she says.

She admits to wanting to be a mathematician and always was fascinated by math. The law of physics definitely applies to “Primordial of the Sea.”

The artist has an interest in exploring the natural world at a finite level, focusing on the interactions among atoms and the hidden reality of the universe.

A handwritten poem in English and Spanish is on one of the walls of Alba Triana’s installation. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan/courtesy of Locust Projects)

Citing another influence in her life, she speaks of her maternal grandfather, Camilio, a poet. A large handwritten poem is on one of the walls, part of the installation – in English and in Spanish.

“I write privately and I never share my work. I do it for me. It is the way in which I organize my ideas. It is easier for me to write poetry than logical prose. So, with this very short poem, I decided to include it – it adds something to what the work is expressing.”

“Under the deepest sea, the point vertical axis of all dimensions tangle in full motion no end no bottom the line point path the circle point cycle.”

There are two black wooden blocks in the middle of the Project Room, an invitation for viewers to sit with the work for a while. And this is where the depth of “Dialogue with the Primordial Sea” sinks in. Where the soul of the composer that is at the heart of the sound installation rings clear. Despite its randomness, there is an organization to it all.

Like a composition, there are pauses and then, as Triana explains, “cascades of attacks. I wanted everything in the piece to have an identity, but it is never the same. It’s like the natural world, right?”

A video projection of Arturo Arrechea skipping stones at Tropical Park is part of the multi-media installation “Bare Tool” (“Herramienta desnuda”) at Locust Projects through Thursday, Jan. 23. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan/courtesy of Locust Projects)

She likens the way the work evolves constantly to a flower, an orchid in this particular example. “If it’s going to bloom, you know what it will look like, but the specific characteristics are random. You don’t know if a leaf will be bigger, if a petal will be smaller. This is how this is designed. I want it to be a manifestation of the natural world, but at a very miniscule, granular level.”

Next door to the Project Room, in Locust Projects’ Main Gallery, is Cuban-born Alexandre Arrechea’s “Bare Tool” (“Herramienta desnuda”), another of the arts incubator’s Knight Digital Commissions.

A video projection shows a teenager by the side of a lake tossing a stone creating ripples. The teenager is Arturo, the artist’s son, at Miami’s Tropical Park. The ripple effect sparked a memory in Arrechea of a time when he was in Japan during a pivotal moment in his career — he had catapulted to international acclaim as one of the founding members of the Cuban collective Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters) from 1991 to 2003.

While standing by a frozen lake in Japan, Arrechea tossed a stone the same way his son would do decades later. In that one gesture, the frozen lake shattered.

Alexandre Arrechea says he sees his work as social sculpture. “Art is not just a mirror to society but a tool for awakening it.” (Portrait at Locust Projects by Pedro Wazzan/courtesy of Locust Projects)

“And then he told me he thought about his role as an artist and the tools that he takes into his hand,” says Lorie Mertes, executive director of Locust Projects. “And the act of making – or gestures – and what are those implications?”

Arrechea sees his work as social sculpture. “Art is not just a mirror to society but a tool for awakening it,” he says.

In his site-specific installation at Locust Projects, the work is meant to be activated by those who interact with it. CNC plywood kinetic sculptures are suspended from the ceiling by steel cables while others are moveable interactive floor pieces with table bases.

The artist, based in Miami and Madrid, envisioned the installation in three acts: “The Tool,” “The Action,” and “The Implications.”

A component of the installation was having the Main Gallery be accessible as a social gathering space. Locust Projects hosted its annual benefit dinner titled “Ripple Effect,” in November and events during Miami Art Week in December. Arrechea incorporated some of the works to be utilized as long tables where the benefit dinner guests were seated.

“The idea for creating this work as a space for reunion, for meeting, is part of the nature of Locust Projects and the nature of what I wanted with this particular installation,” says Arrechea.

Alexandre Arrechea’s sketch of “Bare Tool” (“Herramienta desnuda”), what he envisioned for Locust Projects. (Sketch courtesy of the artist)

The hanging sculptures are meant to be activated interacting with what is happening in the room. “People walking might bump into one of these cables and start making the pieces move and collide with each other,” says Arrechea, and that is the purpose.

This is art that should be touched. “I want people to have an experience with what I’ve developed,” he says.

The artist invites visitors to touch the cables to make the hanging sculptures move as part of the activation of the installation.

This is art that should be touched. The hanging sculptures are meant to be activated interacting with what is happening in the room in the site-specific installation “Bare Tool” (“Herramienta desnuda”). (Photo by Pedro Wazzan/courtesy of Locust Projects)

“He’s very interested in how architecture embodies identity but also how it moves people around space; he’s always looking to challenge that and create new systems of engagement,” says Mertes.

WHAT: Alba Triana: “Dialogue with the Primordial Sea” and Alexandre Arrechea: “Bare Tool” (“Herramienta desnuda”)

WHERE: Locust Projects, 297 NE 67 St., Miami

WHEN: Extended hours in January: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Both exhibitions on display through Thursday, Jan. 23.

COST: Free

RELATED EVENT: Closing night event, 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 23. Panel discussion: Artists Alba Triana, Rodolfo Peraza, and Leo Castaneda, moderated by Andrew McLees, Art + Digital Innovation Manager, Locust Projects, the conversation explores how artists use technology to reveal intangible phenomena through sound and magnetic fields, digital memory and archives, immersive virtual environments, and more.

INFORMATION: (305) 576-8570 or locustprojects.org

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