Archives for the Month of October, 2013

Zimoun – 60 medical Infusion Sets, Water, Fire, Metal Sheets 20x20x4cm

This item was originally written for the printed issue of Neural Magazine – 45 Americas

Zimoun is known for his multiform artworks and installations created from commonplace industrial objects that explore array aesthetics combined with rhythmic sound. A recent work 60 Medical Infusion Sets, Water, Fire, Metal Sheets consists of a room containing medical drip sets each of which drops water onto heated metal sheets. On contact with the metal the water is instantaneously transformed into small jets of steam – moment of union being marked by a crisp hiss as water is vaporised by extreme heat. Over a period of time the metal sheets become oxidised and act as process canvases documenting the slow chemical transformation of metal into rust.

60 Medical Infusion Sets, Water, Fire, Metal Sheets 60 Medical Infusion Sets, Water, Fire, Metal Sheets – Zimoun

All dripping processes are emergent by virtue of the properties of fluid flow so that the rhythmic patterns of water dripping phase between randomness and order. Whereas the rhythmic sonic events in Zimoun’s previous works, such as 198 prepared dc-motors, wire isolated, cardboard boxes 30x30x8cm, were extremely dense, created by multiple non-synchronous sound-emitting motors, this recent work proposes a more meditative situation with respect to sound. Here, time is perceived to have slowed – the silent intervals act as strong counterpoints to the infrequent vaporisations. Each vaporisation draws our eye to its respective metal sheet generating a specific spatial awareness of the array within the installation.

98 prepared dc-motors, wire isolated, cardboard boxes 30x30x8cm 98 prepared dc-motors, wire isolated, cardboard boxes 30x30x8cm – Zimoun

Including elements such as water and fire in the title reinforces the alchemical intimations of the work. An extremely simple, taken-for-granted reaction, is represented as a primal elemental transmutation and recorded as irregular concentric oxide accretions. This piece, as with all of Zimoun’s work, relies on clinical aesthetics where multiple objects are spatially ordered while being precisely situated. These ‘architecturally-minded platforms of sound’ propose an array aesthetic that embraces­ minimalism and maximalism simultaneously.

Note: The term array aesthetic was originally proposed by Mitchell Whitelaw (You can read an interview Dataisnature made with him for Neural magazine here)