ILLUMINATE SF

WAVELENGTHS

Jim Campbell (2002)

Installed: May 14, 2016 - September 18, 2016

Yerba Buena: 151 Third Street, SFMOMA

Wavelengths by Jim Campbell was installed on a 15-foot wall at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and consisted of five very low-resolution LED panels that displayed five synchronized views of ocean waves. The artist's interactive work typically explores the characteristics of physical movement in figures and nature through light and material. In this installation, which went from a wide shot to an extreme close-up shot, the low resolution images moved from abstract to concrete, offering viewers a penetrating visual impression rather than a specific narrative.

Artist: Jim Campbell plumbs the human ability to interpret information and "fill in the gaps" necessary to create a complete idea. His exploration of the distinction between the analogue world and its digital representation metaphorically parallels the difference between poetic understanding versus the mathematics of data. While Campbell's works typically use flat grids of evenly spaced LEDs, he has recently begun to "pull apart" two-dimensional imagery, presenting it in a three-dimensional format. A recent outdoor installation, Scattered Light, in New York's Madison Square Park, and Exploded Views (4 Films), a commission for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, exemplify this new direction.