Volume (Renwick)

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Copied Leo Villareal, Volume (Renwick), 2015, white LEDs, mirror-finished stainless steel, custom software, and electrical hardware, 114 × 249 1⁄2 × 78 1⁄2 in. (289.6 × 633.7 × 199.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Janet and Jim Dicke, Tania and Tom Evans, Paula and Peter Lunder, and Debbie Petersen in honor of Elizabeth Broun, 2016.13, © Leo Villareal

Artwork Details

Title
Volume (Renwick)
Artist
Date
2015
Location
Dimensions
114 × 249 1⁄2 × 78 1⁄2 in. (289.6 × 633.7 × 199.4 cm)
Copyright
© Leo Villareal
Credit Line
Gift of Janet and Jim Dicke, Tania and Tom Evans, Paula and Peter Lunder, and Debbie Petersen in honor of Elizabeth Broun
Mediums
Mediums Description
white LEDs, mirror-finished stainless steel, custom software, and electrical hardware
Classifications
Keywords
  • Abstract
Object Number
2016.13
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.13

Artwork Description

Only part of Villareal's artwork is visible in the materials suspended above the staircase. This hardware serves primarily as a vehicle for the visual manifestation of code--an artist-written algorithm employing the binary system of 1s and 0s telling each LED when to turn on or off. This simple command creates lighting sequences that will never repeat exactly as before. It also changes how we think of code, from a line of characters that can be read on any screen to an object that must be witnessed in the museum.

Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery, 2019

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WONDER
WONDER celebrates the renovation and reopening of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery with an immersive web of magic. Nine major contemporary artists, including Maya Lin, Tara Donovan, Leo Villareal, Patrick Dougherty, and Janet Echelman, were invited to take over the Renwick’s galleries, transforming the entire museum into a mind-expanding cabinet of wonders. Mundane materials such as index cards, marbles, sticks, and thread are conjured into strange new worlds that demonstrate the qualities uniting these artists: a sensitivity to site and the ways we experience place, a passion for making and materiality, and a desire to provoke awe.