On | Off and Everything in Between

So Saturday night Amanda and I went to see Design by Build's opening at Commonwealth's studios. The overall space was typical modern gallery-esque but the artwork was moving to say the least. Build had made a series of pieces representing the different facets of the digital era. With playful spins on the 2001 Space Odyssey quote "Open the pod bay doors Hal..." and other diagrams representing a catalog found in and on the designer's desk, the On | Off opening was a success. The interesting thing about the frames was that each frame was CNC milled individually on their router bed using Corian as the base material. In most cases, the actual design was milled into the frame itself, creating a new dialogue between what is art and what is the vessel in which the art is contained. One criticism of the frame construct was that it essentially looked like a tradtional frame, where the unit is composed of 4 individual pieces, mitred together to form a rigid body. Instead of taking the problem of the frame and art and approaching it in a new way, Build simply emulated the traditional frame and made these monolithic objects appear to be 4 parts. If that makes some sense. Anyway, here are some shots from the opening...