Mark Pauline has turned NYC’s Marlborough Contemporary in Chelsea into what looks like a post-apocalyptic gadget shop, with an exhibit that has turned reclaimed factory materials into gigantic chaotic robots.
Survival Research Laboratories, the moniker adopted by artist Mark Pauline, has brought his first solo exhibition a commercial gallery to Marlborough Contemporary in Chelsea. The show comprises eight kinetic sculptures, spanning Pauline’s work between 1986 to today, with video documentation of past performances of the robots in action.
Mark Pauline’s work took shape in late 70’s San Francisco, and in contrast to Silicon Valley’s obsession with “smaller, sleeker and more utilitarian” machines, Pauline concentrates on big, audacious and often useless devices. Mark Pauline told artsy.net:
“I love wasting technology, […] I love it when you take something that’s really practical and do something ridiculous with it.”
Work in the exhibit, titled “Inconsiderate fantasies of negative acceleration characterized by sacrifices of a non-consensual nature” includes the deadly “Pitching Machine.” A robot that uses a 500 cubic-inch Cadillac Eldorado engine, linked to a series of spinning tires, that is capable of throwing a standard wooden two-by-four at up to 200 miles per hour.
Check out some of Survival Research Laboratories work in this video from a show at the SF Museum in the 90’s
“Inconsiderate fantasies of negative acceleration characterized by sacrifices of a non-consensual nature” will be at the Marlborough Contemporary in Chelsea, 545 West 25th Street, until February 10th.
Featured image source [Scott Beale | Flickr]