Art has always embraced the technologies of the times to expand the forms of universal expression. So as technology becomes more sophisticated, and thus more costly, one must frequently turn to large public projects to discover what artists can do with new tools. Two large building projects nearing completion in Salt Lake City this fall will allow Utah to witness two such projects by internationally recognized artists. While architect Philip Beesley is creating scientific structures that have the grace and form of artworks, Dutch designer Simon Heijdens creates art installations that really on sophisticated technology for their stunning effects. Both share an interest in delving into the power of site.

Philip Beesley
After a long, and sometimes precarious, birthing struggle the Leonardo is scheduled to open its doors this fall in Salt Lake City. The museum’s transformation of the old Salt Lake library into a celebration and exploration of science, art and technology, will include a number of temporary and permanent art installations by local artists (which will be the subjects of future editions). The museum is also looking to national and international artists to create installations that will explore the crossroads of technology, engineering and art.

This summer the Leonardo will host Canadian architect Philip Beesley as he installs Hylozoic Ground, a revolutionary project that explores how buildings of the future might move, think and feel. Three quarters of a million people have seen the project in Britain, Spain, Austria, Holland, Italy, Mexico, and Taiwan, but this will be the first major installation in the United States.

In Hylozoic Ground Beesley is creating what he refers to as “living architecture.” With his team of collaborators Beesley installs a structure made out of base materials, chemistry and electricity that appears both feathery and crystalline and calls to mind the sculptures of Ruth Asawa. A series of microprocessors give the structure a primitive sort of swarm or crowd intelligence that responds to the presence of living things. The chemical elements give the structure a function, enabling it to act somewhat like the lymphatic system, transforming toxins into harmless substances. It is an exploration into the architecture of the future, where a building would respond and transform itself according to interior and exterior conditions.

Beesley’s team is looking for a group of volunteers to help install the project. If you are interested contact Chris Davies at cdavies@theleonardo.org.

Simon Heijdens
Site-specific works are often about the dimensions of a space, whether that space is surrounded by mountains or gallery walls. Simon Heijdens’ work extends this idea to highlight the invisible conditions of a site, including the movement of air and the passage of people. Having originally studied film, the London-based artist | now creates works that evolve over time to tell a story. They often respond to outside stimuli: a window at Chicago’s Art Institute was covered in a special film that creates constantly changing shadows that shift with the weather; in “Tree,” a light projection shows the outline of a bare tree on the side of a city building, its animated leaves on the street below, dancing about in response to the wind.

The Utah Museum of Natural History is hoping to bring one of the Dutch artist’s works to their new building at the Rio Tinto Center. The new home of the museum occupies 17 acres at the top of Salt Lake’s east bench, with views the include the city, the Wasatch Range, Great Salt Lake, and the Basin and Range province beyond.

Heijdens’ proposed work, a light-projection project, will grow up along one of the walls of the museum’s main floor open space called “The Canyon.” The work will use complex code to create projections of digital plants that evolve; they will grow, thrive and decline with the seasons, coming forth in continually new forms as they respond to “measurements of the weather outside and human use of the space inside.”

The Canyon

Heijdens’ digital plants will be created using forms in the arid environment surrounding the building, as well as some of the 1.2 million natural history objects in the museums collection. The project has received a leadership grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and support from the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation and Utah philanthropists, but the UMNH still needs to raise more funds to make the project happen. Click here to learn how you can help.

15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.