Shaun Kardinal

Installation at Two Shelves, October 14th, 2014

A Participatory Digital Installation created for Two Shelves

Two Shelves is an apartment gallery which promotes site-specific installation. Rather than ask artists to simply show their usual work on a shelf, the aptly-titled project’s founders hope the intimate and minimal space is used as a springboard for new ideas. When invited to exhibit, my recent projects had all been digital, online exhibitions, and I knew that I wanted that work to carry over into this physical space.

After some time considering projections against a wall-piece, I decided I didn’t want anything tangible. I wanted a screen on the wall, or possibly multiple small screens, and after the sobering realization that I couldn’t afford a batch of tablets came the epiphany: nearly every visitor to the show would have a screen with them. I would simply request that the visitor load the project in some fashion and participate, contributing to the whole. This simple premise eventually led to Relinquish.Me, the piece which, iterated into a multitude of variables, generates the installation. Hence: Left to Your Own Devices.

To the exhibition space, I brought nothing physical: there was no install, and there was no wall text. Visitors were verbally prompted to enter the url into their mobile device, select a screen orientation, then participate by placing the device anywhere on a shelf. On screen, a video looped—a set of clips, selected randomly from several hours of video screen captures, documentations of operating system performances, created for the exhibition.

Here, for example, are several devices running a few sets of clips…

Live demo: devices on two shelves

The installation grew and contracted as the crowd did. It was remarkable to see the room of people stripped of their phones and the usual engagement that goes with them. Nearly everybody faced the wall of screens, like in a theater, and conversations flowed. At first, along with project founders Joe Rudko and Kelly Björk, I personally instructed people; in time, the visitors shared the premise of the show among one another. As Joe quipped, the url went viral.

Create your own unique installation!

My favorite part of this piece is that an iteration of it can be created anywhere, anytime. It is ready for you online. Simply load Relinquish.Me into any number of mobile browsers, choose your screen orientation, and place the devices together for your own unique, never-the-same-twice, digital installation.

Further reading: Interview with Greg Lundgren for ‘Between the Shelves’

An exhibition on Instagram

Lately I’ve been interested in pursuing new routes of engagement in my creative output. Changing up not only my art-making activity, but also reconsidering my standards of presentation and promotion.

When I started making these digital collages of “found” images (taken from Google searches and friends’ Facebook and Instagram feeds), I knew they would be presented only digitally. I did not want to make another precious thing for sale.

Eventually I chose my Instagram feed as the right exhibition space, and would, as a sort of durational performance, post the images over the course of two hours during Seattle’s First Thursday Art Walk. Following contemporary standards, I encouraged people to check it out with a Facebook event, but excluded any telling information and images. #gabbo

When the evening came, I got myself setup at a favorite bar where, lit blue by iPhone and Macbook, I posted an image. Every ten minutes, I composed another—using Instagram’s filters and editor to finish each piece.

(mainlining the secret truths of the universe)

People engaged in the set actively as I posted. In my home feed, the images mixed with shots of other work, tangible work, lining the walls of proper art spaces.

I drank two whiskey-gingers and ate a plate of fries with garlic aioli.

flying

is

learning

how

to

throw

yourself

at

the

ground

and

miss.

When I wrapped things up with the final title image, I closed my computer and put away my phone. Still alone at the bar, I felt newly connected to my art and community, rejuvenated and altogether satisfied with a successful project.

(thank you for joining me)

Embroidered schoolroom map collage, 80 x 29-1/2″

A commissioned piece highlighting coffee growing regions of the world.

On display in the backspace of a local coffee establishment.

View work details »

80 hand-embroidered vintage postcards, pushpins and yarn, 16 x 4’

An 80-piece installation for Bumbershoot

I was invited to include work in Found and Unbound, an exhibition featuring artists who repurpose found objects in their work. Originally I was asked to create a small set of embroidered postcards, but after completing a satisfying 42 piece series earlier this year and also wanting to work more with installation, I decided to up the ante a bit. In just a few weeks, I sewed up 66 new postcards; in a single six hour session, the work seemed to just fall on the wall with precise ease. I am very pleased with the result. The project may have destroyed my wrist, but it also may be the most satisfying thing I’ve made for a wall yet. The whole series of cards and other works are available in the shop. See the install larger on the blog.

Alteration No. 110

Alteration No. 109

Alteration No. 66

Alteration No. 67

Alteration No. 68

Alteration No. 72

Alteration No. 73

Alteration No. 74

Alteration No. 79

Alteration No. 81

Alteration No. 84

Alteration No. 85

Alteration No. 113

Alteration No. 112

Alteration No. 111

View the rest of the series »

View work details »

We Begin to Wake 1. Hand-embroidered paper collage, 19 x 14 inches.

Responding directly to an earlier piece,

These two new works are a rare sort for me: abstractions which attempt to convey meaning. Earlier this year I was asked to create a piece for Chamber Music, an exhibition at Frye Art Museum featuring 36 artists “who contribute to activities which strengthen Seattle’s art community.” My piece was about our community existing between great times, like a seed, pregnant with life, lying in wait in the darkness.

For a new show at SAM Gallery, I was asked to create a few new works in the same aesthetic style. I decided to work not only with the aesthetic, but also the meaning, so these two are about growth in that darkness; a slow, deliberate rebirth.

We Begin to Wake 2. Hand-embroidered paper collage, 19 x 14 inches.

The show continues through August 17, 2013.