The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts presents Speed of Light Machine an exhibition on view Sep 2, 2011 – Dec 4, 2011.
For his exhibition, Speed of Light Machine, 2011, Ephraim Rus- sell transforms the DCCA gallery wall into what could be consid- ered the world’s lowest-resolution TV monitor. Approximately 700 fiber optic strands are connected to a computer terminal that plays digital videos off of the ubiquitously popular website, YouTube.
Unlike a new TV that delivers crisp, high definition images, Russell’s giant “monitor” depicts indecipherable images made up of abstract patterns of light. Re-signifying the traditional white gallery wall as an older-model box TV, the artist initiates a playful critique of art institutions, technology, and entertainment in our everyday lives. As an artist, Russell resists the global push for progress and insatiable desire for “high-tech” gadgets and instead presents us with a dysfunc- tional art object—a “low-tech” symbol of obsolescence and frustration.
As a sculpture, the work can also be considered emblematic of the artists’ ironic nostalgia for the Sci-Fi B movie genre. Yet, while science fiction films often portray time as one of a host of fantastic travel op- tions for the future, Russell’s Speed of Light Machine ultimately transports us back down to Earth, where he would seemingly suggest we might be hitting a wall of illumination derived from a high-speed web connection.
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
200 South Madison Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 302-656-6466 • www.thedcca.org