Giving More to Gain More

source: cohenvanbalen

Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen’s work is occupied with broad meanings of material and production. They work across objects, installation, video and photography to explore the idea of manufacturing as a cultural, ethical and political process.
Their practice experiments with the use of design as an artistic medium, drawing on tensions between biology and technology. Inspired by the idea of the technological material, they create artificial minerals, unnatural animals and poetic machines.
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source: cohenvanbalen

A series of aluminium structures is set with programmable LED strips, constructing fragments of text that originated in the process of sourcing electronic components from China.
The language that emerges as a byproduct of global mass-manufacturing constructs a particular form of production-centred pidgin poetry. Alibaba.com thus becomes a source of both material and content.

The materiality of the made-in-China electronics sits in contrast to the bespoke hand crafted aluminium tracks. Aligning the abstraction of form to the abstraction of the text, the words can only be read upon animated illumination.
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source: creativeapplicationsnet

Giving More to Gain More is the latest work by London based Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen. The installation, commissioned by Jerwood Visual Arts, includes a series of aluminium structures with programmable LED strips, constructing fragments of text that originated in the process of sourcing electronic components from China.

The language that emerges as a byproduct of global mass-manufacturing constructs a particular form of production-centred pidgin poetry. Alibaba.com thus becomes a source of both material and content.The materiality of the made-in-China electronics sits in contrast to the bespoke hand crafted aluminium tracks. Aligning the abstraction of form to the abstraction of the text, the words can only be read upon animated illumination.

Installation is part of the Jerwood Makers Open 2014 exhibition on display at the Jerwood Visual Arts in London until 31st august 2014. Other participating artists include Hitomi Hosono, Matthew Raw, Shelley James and FleaFollyArchitects, all selected by Vicky Richardson (Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council), Junko Mori (artist and silversmith) and Claire Catterall (Director of Exhibitions and Learning at Somerset House).