SPACE March 2023 (No. 664)
‘Drift: In Sync with the Earth’ / Image courtesy of STORAGE by Hyundai Card
How can nature and technology coexist? DRIFT, an artist duo from the Netherlands, proposes sublime new possibilities by grafting structural rules discovered in the principles of nature into technology. ‘Drift: In Sync with the Earth’, on display at STORAGE by Hyundai Card from Dec. 18, 2022, presents five representative works that encompass the creative imaginary of DRIFT. Shylight is a moving sculpture focused around the motif of the nyctinasty of flowers. The principle of nature was implemented at the level of engineering design, focusing on the fact that the figure of a flower opening and closing according to conditions such as the length of day and night and temperature, humidity is similar to that of humans adapting to an environment. Amplitude, which explores movement and balance in the flapping of the wings of birds, creates regular movements by drawing on its own power generated by 20 pairs of transparent glass tubes. These movements bring up the image of biorhythms such as human breathing and heartbeat, and remind us of the position of human beings as natural materials through artificial properties. Fragile Future is an installation work of one LED light bulb with dandelion seeds attached expanded. The structure which can be infinitely expanded through modules visually reproduces the self-replicating system of nature. Materialism deconstructs objects commonly encountered in everyday life into a state of materials before processing and illuminates objects surrounding us from the perspective of matter. Lastly, the archival section considers the significance of engineering thinking that extrapolates elements from nature as running themes within these works. The exhibition will be on display until Apr. 16. by Kim Jia