Grid Keeper

Robin Kang

Curated by Kate McQuillen

Press Release

In Gridkeeper, a site-specific installation by Robin Kang, the floor of Super Dutchess has been covered in a grid of transparent bricks, bonded horizontally across the floor. A single image fills the back wall: a jacquard weaving titled “Golden Shield,” depicting an image of a magnetic-core memory plane. Magnetic-core memory was an early form of random-access memory (RAM), which was itself woven, made of wire threads. When creating her weavings, Kang utilizes a digitally operated Jacquard hand loom, the contemporary version of the first binary operated machine, and argued precursor to the invention of the computer.

In both pieces, Kang draws conceptual connections across centuries of technology: bricklaying masonry techniques employ a structure that builds strength through interconnected layers, much like the information architecture of cyberspace and integrated circuit boards; similarly, early loom weaving relied on binary information structures that lead to the invention of the punchcard technology that was adopted in the earliest computers. Kang echoes this mixture of high-tech and low-tech in the physical production of her work as well. Her primary medium is weaving, but she does so on a loom that has programmable elements; improvisation and color choices are made on the fly as she runs yarn through by hand. Her BRXL constructions are digitally printed, but each brick is laid piece by piece into a larger form.

In the conduits and pathways in Kang’s bricks and woven imagery, there is a handmade quality that makes the digital world feel familiar. Warped, wobbly lines, reminiscent of solder that has crept out beyond the maker’s tool, create simple shapes. The playful nature of these forms lends familiarity to a silicon world that we often consider to be sterile and cold. There is a sense of magnification, and of getting a peek “under the hood” at the miniature valves through which complex operations flow. The warmth of the wool and the outline brick edges reinforces this sense of physicality, making us feel as though these technologies are things that we can actually reach out and touch, even as electricity loops through them.

In these straightforward and compact works, themes of pathways, repetition, endlessness, and possibilities rise to the surface. Made with technologies whose histories span many millenia, the works are able to both look to the past while projecting into the future. Through their hybrid nature, partially made by hand and partially made by machine, Kang reminds us that all technology is our own creation, a mirror of our consciousness, and the Digital Age is just another blip in the course of human history.

Robin Kang is a recipient of the 2017 NYFA Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture. She has exhibited throughout the US, Canada, Spain, Belgium, France, Austria, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Recent institutional shows include the Queens Museum, the Essl Museum, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, U.S Embassy in Saudi Arabia and Brooklyn Academy of Music, among others. She has participated in artist residencies in Texas, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Beijing. Press for her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Curate L.A, ArtNews, Artnet, Hyperallergic, White Hot Magazine, Artspace, Aesthetica Magazine, and ArtFCity.com.