If you’ve seen eXistenZ, or Dead Ringers, or Crimes of the Future, you’re familiar with the organic design aesthetic of Canada’s most well-known creator of surreal cinema, David Cronenberg. The echoes of Cronenberg’s fictional tools for surgery and rubbery organ-esque technologies show up in the work of Matthew Ronay. Here’s more from the Blaffer Art Museum:
Made primarily with basswood, dye, and gouache but often incorporating such materials as steel, plastic and cotton thread, Ronay’s sculptures, reliefs and installations formally draw on surrealism, psychedelia, and science fiction. Inspired by a deep appreciation for botany, mycology, and biology—fields that explore parts of the physical world that are often hidden from humans’ perception but shape our experiences in ways both subtle and profound—Ronay seeks to create “something that looks as if it’s grown, that these aren’t objects that were necessarily made by a human, but that they’ve grown themselves.” Their vivid palettes combine hues from across the spectrum that seem to vibrate and hum—an achievement all the more remarkable in light of Ronay’s deuteranomaly, a form of colorblindness caused by a shift in the green retinal receptors.
Along with a dozen discrete sculptures and reliefs, the exhibition features two large-scale installations made of groupings of individual sculptures. Organ Organelle (2014), which Ronay likens to a respiratory system, offers a carefully orchestrated arrangement of biomorphic shapes and structures in bright gradient shades of pinks, purples, yellows and the occasional touch of turquoise. Set against red fabric, each sculpture seemingly pulsates with heat and reproductive energy as if grown from a magmatic jungle that is home to exotic plants, fruits and flowers. With the interconnected fabric mats shaped to evoke biological cells or chemical flasks, each of these sculptures assumes a vital role in some form of organic circuit that flows through a portal-like shape mounted against the wall and framed with head-like ovoids, elongated staffs and open circles. With its wall-bound verticality and 90-degree remove, the configuration of portal, mask, staffs and circles introduces a ritualistic element that connects the botanical to a human scenario.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!