Artist takes people to the edge in Headlands augmented reality installation
Courtesy of Vishal K. Dar
"These batteries and bunkers were fascinating to me because they didn't have a narrative I could include myself, just these leftover, out-of-function sites which almost beckoned that they could be engaged with on a level where it might be interesting to build new narratives into them," says Vishal K. Dar of his exhibit at the Headlands Center for the Arts through March 3
“Edge of See: Twilight Engines,” which uses an augmented reality app to create abstract light sculptural overlays, or “engines,” that will spin, turn and tumble over three former military batteries — Mendell, Wallace and Smith-Guthrie — in the Headlands, a project he developed while he was an artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in 2017. It opens Sunday and runs through March 3.
It’s the first time he’s used augmented reality in his work, a necessity this time, he says, to avoid getting tangled in the bureaucratic shenanigans often involved when dealing with historic structures on federal land. But, just as attractive, he says, is using apps to show how ubiquitous and essential they have become, and how they connect us to our world.
“Human history is bogged down by a certain idea of perspective and a notion of a narrative. The urge is to roam. It’s only been 150, 200 years that we’ve made nations, states and borders, and national boundaries. Before that, the way we populated the earth and the way everything developed is because we moved around. It isn’t because we stayed in one place and created a fence around ourselves and said, ‘this is what we’re going to be, this is what our history is going to be,'” he says. “History, narrative are mobile and organic. If I’m interested in landscape, I can’t be interested in the pettiness of human history.”
What: “Edge of See: Twilight Engines”
When: Jan. 20 to March 3, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays
Where: Headlands Center for the Arts, 944 Fort Barry, Sausalito
Admission: Free
Information: headlands.org
See the full story here: https://www.marinij.com/2019/01/16/artist-takes-people-to-the-edge-in-headlands-augmented-reality-installation/