Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Campbell, Jim |
Title |
Reconstruction #4 |
Medium |
Custom electronics, white LEDs, cast resin, 3/3 |
Date |
2005 |
Description |
Jim Campbell (Chicago 1956; lives and works in San Francisco) Reconstruction #4, 2005 Custom electronics, white LEDs, cast resin, 3/3 10 3/4 x 14 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches Knoxville Museum of Art, 2005 purchase with funds provided by KMA Collectors Circle and financial assistance from the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology Jim Campbell is widely known to be one of the most extraordinary and significant artists working with new media. His sculptural installations have pioneered new ways of transmitting images, from l.e.d. (light emitting diode) screens to touch-sensitive computers. He is unique among artists working with digital media because he uses technology in the service of profound humanism. In many of his works, Campbell suggests that the closer one gets to that which s/he pursues, the more intangible it becomes. This piece consists of a grid of 192 white l.e.d.s that flicker on and off in a pattern that creates a moving image. To give you some perspective, your computer screen has well over a million pixels making up the image you see. 192 pixels is such low resolution that you should not be able to understand the imagery you see at all. But, your brain fills in the gaps of information and produces meaning. Jim is interested in how or why we understand the things we understand. The title of the piece relates to the resin screen that hangs in front of the l.e.d. panel and acts as a reconstruction filter. When information goes from analog (what we see or hear or sense) into digital (0s and 1s) it needs to be reconstructed to revert to analog so we understand it. The cast resin acts as a lens, focusing the pixilated imagery and aiding our perception. This imagery was shot on the streets of Manhattan as part of the footage Jim shot on September 12, 2001. He was attempting to capture the stunned feeling he had and that he felt in the other people around him the day after 9/11. Selected collections Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Austin Museum of Art, TX; Berkeley Art Museum, CA |
Catalog Number |
2005.02.01 |
Search Terms |
Lighting Light fixtures Sculpture Electronic images |
Credit line |
Purchase with funds provided by KMA Collectors Circle and financial assistance from the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology |