CHROMAtex

August 26th - September 30, 2010

Bridge Gallery NYC

Grasshopper Consultant for SOFTlab. Responsible for generation and organization of 4,000+ piece installation funded through Kickstarter exhibited at the Bridge Gallery NYC on Delancy and Orchard St. in Lower East Side Manhattan.

Shortly after graduation I was given the opportunity to design and fabricate an installation for SOFTlab’s fall show at the Bridge Gallery in Manhattan. The resulting yonic funnel filled the street-side window of the lower East Side art gallery with brilliant yellow and magenta. When visitors entered through the front door, however, they found only a rough, colorless, trumpet-like tube. Portals blossomed brightly and intermittently form its surface. In effect we flipped the gallery inside out. We tucked glossy, ink jet-printed, photo-paper panels - with precise gradations of hue and glass-smooth surfaces - inside the tube and turned its binder clip structure outward, revealing stitches, seams and the method of construction.  

The 30 ft. long piece was funded through a Kickstarter page in which 160 backers graciously pledged donations. To show our gratitude we represented their names and custom messages in the form of a laser cut etching on the backside of each color panel. A grasshopper definition output all files necessary for panel fabrication. I was able to successfully unroll each panel from the geometry and assign a unique detail and gradient for assembly. To fabricate the piece we first printed a custom color gradient unique to each panel on a standard desktop ink jet printer. Secondly, we laser cut the corresponding panel shape with labels and a custom name and message from our backers oriented parallel to the floor. The entire structure was then put together by a massive amount of binder clips.

In addition to the 4,500 panels 22  support rings were used to hoist the structure off the ground. Made from white acrylic the rings were labeled to match a specific detail on corresponding panels. The resulting assembly concealed itself allowing the piece to appear monolithic while streamlining the production process allowing multiple teams to work on opposite ends of the final piece.

The entire fabrication process was completed in little over a month. The grasshopper definition took a week to be sorted leaving the printing and cutting to be done in two weeks and one week for the on site installation.  With so many binder clips needed for the structure we actually took the time to prep each binder clip by opening them slightly, a task that surprisingly took some time but saved us a lot of frustration during installation. Its the little things! Our effort came together so smoothly that our team finished a day early!  A time lapse of our construction can be seen at www.SOFTlabnyc.com

The packed opening was an enormous success and quite rewarding for me to experience and be able to explain the process to people. What I found remarkable about the opening was the projects ability to speak to so many different audiences, from the design world to the regular joe, the storefront display seemed to send a jolt to just about anybody passing by. The project was well received in numerous popular design websites such as; Designboom, Evolo, Bustler, Suckerpunch, etc. I am proud to say that the project also landed the cover spot on Frame Magazines Fall 2011 issue along with a 12 page featured article. In addition the design also won Pantone’s Project of Mind Blowing Color for 2010. Most recently SOFTlab was awarded the 2012 Architectural League Prize for the project. To find out more simply search for CHROMAtex.me for all of the positive feedback.