RYAN LEE Gallery is pleased to present Fabricator, a site-specific installation by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. Using the window glass of RLWindow as a canvas, the McCoys have constructed a custom-built vertical plotter machine which they will use to produce multi-layered acrylic paintings visible from the High Line. The McCoys will activate the machine each Saturday in September, publicly experimenting with the technology by feeding it a combination of algorithmic and visual data. Between each session, the ephemeral paintings will remain on view in RLWindow as successive layers are created.
The McCoys are well known for their investigation of contemporary tools, often questioning their impact on both the individual and society. The artists have been experimenting with plotters for some time, exploring this technology’s capacity to interpret various types of input to produce both geometric abstractions and landscapes. In the past, they have exhibited work derived from similar machines, but in Fabricator, they create the works live for the first time. To do so, the McCoys push the technical limitations of plotters; though plotters are typically flat and employ dry mediums such as pen or pencil, here the McCoys rotate the machine upright to paint on glass using acrylic. Applying signal processing algorithms and computer vision to data from cameras and sensors, the artists craft self-generating code to drive this custom plotter. Programming the machine as such, the duo cede artistic control. They describe the final images as “hands-free, eyes-free” pictures.
For Fabricator, the McCoys task their custom plotter with generating images that respond to the built and natural environments of the High Line. Composed of algorithmic patterns, the final paintings feature plants growing on the High Line and geometries of neighboring buildings. The McCoys frequently explore natural motifs in their work, referencing the many natural analogs of software engineering techniques, i.e., tree data structures and code branching.
The McCoys conceive of Fabricator as a “sculptural gesture”: a live performance exposing how technology often operates by mimicking nature’s abilities of self-generation and growth. “More and more of the organic world finds its twin in the world of digital machines,” the artists explain. “The complexity of organic processes appears to be adequately described by a profusion of data and algorithms. Growth, thought, and life are fully simulated.”
Having never used this particular plotter, the McCoys will be experiencing its outputs for the first time, along with viewers on the High Line. By testing how a vertical plotter interacts with their generative algorithm, the artists continue the legacy of early, experimental artists working with plotters and algorithmic art (i.e., Harold Cohen, Charles Csuri, and Vera Molnár). From their early experiments with database aesthetics and algorithmic cinema to their pioneering work with NFTs, the McCoys have been crucial in the development of digital art.
The McCoys’ work has been included in exhibitions at the British Film Institute – Southbank, London, England; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; San José Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; and Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT, among many other international venues. Their work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, among others.
