Nate Boyce and OPN Redefine Sculpture in MoMA's 'Reliquary'
What exactly is sculpture, anyway? That's the question posed by artist Nate Boyce and sound designer Oneohtrix Point Never (a.k.a. Daniel Lopatin) in a MoMA show entitled Reliquary. In a multimedia work commissioned by the museum, Boyce has taken the accepted, conventional concepts at the core of sculpture and twisted, tweaked, and turned them into something unfamiliar but undeniably intriguing. With the aid of some computer magic, he has taken images of modern sculptures by David Smith, Anthony Caro, and Jacob Epstein, among others, and created entirely new environments for them, creating the kind of radical recontextualizations that would have been physically impossible to achieve by traditional means.
With OPN's sonic landscapes adding an additional, visceral element to the overall effect, Reliquary achieves the kind of shape-shifting, reality-bending effect that can toy tantalizingly with museumgoers' minds, and that's exactly what's on the agenda when the whole thing happens live at MoMA on December 17 at 9pm. Boyce and OPN will present Reliquary in person, making it all happen right in front of the attendees' eyes and ears. Sound sets by Matt Werth and a series of additional video works will be added into the mix as well. Be advised that those who enter with any preconceptions about the art of sculpture may not leave with those ideas intact.
