SABRINA RAAF

Breath I: Pleasure, 2000 Breath I: Pleasure (2000) is about the purely physical or kynic pleasure of breathing. The cellular images in Breath were made by blowing ink-saturated bubbles onto vellum. Visually, the red bubbles inside resemble red blood cells undergoing mitosis (or cell splitting). The bright red of the cells suggests highly oxygenated blood. The pieces are overlaid with stretched cow gut with very pronounced milky veins which are suggestive of lungs. Adhered to the gut surface are small droplets of cast resin. These add a delicacy and liquidity to the immediate surface. The circular structures are back lit with bluish-white neon.The systematic dimming and brightening of clusters of these circles occurs at the rate of human breathing. The choreography of these breathing patterns with each other is controlled by 3 microcontroller circuits as well as other custom electronics (neon dimmers, etc). There are 21 some odd breathing patterns programmed into the 3 chips. The circles dim on and off in independent clusters according to the breathing patterns each microcontroller is accessing. The patterns used are accessed at random and are complex enough to appear as an infinite set of breathing, sighing, panting, and breath holding.

Lost, 2003 Lost, 2003 Lost (a tribute to the Polar Lander) is a sculptural installation that pays homage to the Polar Lander, a small rover vehicle that was sent to Mars in 1999 as a follow-up to the successful Pathfinder rover. Unfortunately, the Polar Lander was believed to have crashed inside of a crater during its attempt to land on Mars. (NASA has never officially confirmed this fate.) It is however possible that the Pathfinder is still partially functional on Mars today, experiencing strange and wondrous sites on its own, incapable of broadcasting these visions down to Earth. The gray shape atop of the sculpture Lost is reminiscent of a Martian crater. When viewers look inside of this crater form they see a pool of magnetic fluid (called ferrofluid) from which spiky sea urchin-like forms slowly emerge and then dissipate. A tiny rover topped with a wireless camera sits on the edge of this crater watching these alien and threatening forms evolve. The live video stream from the wireless camera is displayed on a flat screen monitor next to the piece. A complex system of cams underneath the pool of black liquid move magnets up and down to “activate” the magnetic ferrofluid in the reservoir and create the strange spiky forms. The technical aspects and mechanisms of the piece remain hidden behind a velvet curtain and are secondary to the magical space above. Dimensions: 48”L x 32” w x 42” h, Materials: Custom kinetic mechanics, steel, rubber, wireless video, ferrofluid

Icelandic Rift, 2006 Icelandic Rift is a series of structures assembled from industrial materials, stark yet organic forms, and automated systems. These sculptures come together in each work to form a modular system of organic architecture which plays on the viewer’s senses of scale and gravity. The Icelandic Rift sculptures are electronically powered works that include mechanical systems which function to automate lights and fluids within the sculpture bodies. Materials in the series include aluminum, cast acrylic, eurothene, ferrofluid, and custom kinetics and electronics. In all, the structures in the Icelandic Rift series represent a future vision of agriculture and growth in a zero-g environment. It is a composition of artificial islands supported and connected by steel and aluminum frames so that they may be assembled as part of a greater mechanical system that hovers above the floor. Together the architecture formed by these structures is designed to be perceived as both vaguely familiar and also austerely alien. On the larger aluminum islands of the series sit smaller island forms cut from cast acrylic and/or aluminum. The island centers are hollowed out to function as reservoirs to hold Ferrofluid – a type of liquid magnet. This is a dense black liquid which spikes up when an another magnet is placed in its proximity. Under some of these islands I have automated earth magnets and electromagnets that, in turn, automate the standing ferrofluid liquid in the reservoirs so that the liquid is made to spin, rise, twitch, or travel. These symbolize both the energy sources for and the natural life of the systems. I was in part inspired to create this work by the landscapes that I explored in Iceland. There, I saw breathtakingly monumental glaciers which seemed to float atop fields smooth black lava rock. In other parts of the country, there were endless stains of acid green sulfur on the earth as well as steaming blue pools of heat-loving algae which defied one’s sense of “the natural”. The landscape in Iceland is famous for its lunar feel but its elements seemed to trump gravity and logic in ways that were utterly unexpected. I am also drawing inspiration for this work from the multi-tiered design of staged, hillside agricultural systems such as those seen in Asian rice terraces. Last, I am drawing inspiration from the soft design forms found in domed space observatories, water droplets, and BioSpheres.

Sabrina Raaf is a Chicago-based artist who works in both experimental sculptural media and photography. She is a producer of creative machines - machines that independently make art when cross-pollinated with human interaction. In 2004-5, her work will be shown at the Stefan Stux Gallery in NY, the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria, at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, the San Jose Museum, the Oboro Art Center in Montreal (solo), and at ISEA (the International Symposium of Electronic Arts) as part of Wearable Experience amongst other exhibitions. In 2003, her work was exhibited in a solo exhibition entitled Roving at Klein Art Gallery in Chicago and in the eShow exhibition curated by Barry Blinderman at the Krannert Museum. In 2003 her work was shown at the Wynick/Tuck Gallery in Toronto and in 2002 in the Here and Now show at the Chicago Cultural Center as well as in Postflesh at California State University in Sacremento, CA, and Sense Data at the Painted Bride Center in Philadelphia, PA. She is the recipient of a 2002, Creative Capitol Grant in Emerging Fields and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship (2001). She has been reviewed in Art in America, Contemporary Magazine, the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine, Leonardo Magazine (MIT Press), www.lab71.org, The Washington Post, The New Art Examiner, The City Paper, and The Chicago Reader. She received an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. Sabrina is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design at UIC in Chicago. We would like to thank her Chicago gallery, Wendy Cooper, for helping us make this exhibition possible.

Dry Translator, 2002 Dry Translator, a sculptural installation piece, is built in response to new trends in ‘smart architecture.’ Smart technology is being created for enhanced human interaction and control of one’s work and home environments. Interestingly what excites many is not the necessarily the enhancement of control, but really more the idea of intelligent responsiveness and heightened personal connection with the rooms they inhabit. Dry Translator is taking this idea of responsiveness to an exaggerated degree. The idea is to create an environment so sensitive to human presence that a touch to its walls sends resonant vibrations throughout the bodies of its occupants. Whereas normally people acknowledge the presence of walls in a building as merely types of boundaries or surfaces, this piece allows them to engage with walls in newly intimate ways such as touching, patting, scratching, talking to or yelling at, and even ‘playing’ the walls as instruments. And, it also allows them to use the walls as sorts of touch messaging devices. The piece includes two custom designed audio vests (which gallery visitors are invited to put on) and an interactive wall. Essentially what occurs with this piece is that when a participant touches the wall in the gallery, they hear the sound of their touch not locally where their fingers hit the wall, but actually on their own torso (via the vest). Inside of the wall there are several wired tentacles (picup mics) that act like stethoscopes. These are able to pick up the slightest vibrations within the drywall material. Sounds from participants touch on the wall are greatly amplified and transmitted wirelessly to the vests. The wall consequently becomes a skin-like extension of the participant’s own body. In touching the wall, their touch is mirrored back onto their torso. Participants may also record a series of touches or gestures on the wall via an interactive consol and thereby leave a message for the next participant to play back on the vest. Wall Dimensions: 99”h x 21”w 74.5”d Piece also includes vests, vest stands, and recharging box for vests This project is partially supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency (2001). Vest construction by SOMA, Sound composed by Sabrina Raaf and D. Edward Davis.

PIGMENT EATERS, 2003 Archival inkjet print 42 x 100 inches Ed 2/7 $4,200

These flying insects are used to eat the pigment out of human hair. They are later milked in a gentle, harmless process. The liquified pigment milked from the insect is used later as ink.

NEVER ALONE, 2003 Archival inkjet print 42 x 67 inches Ed 2/7 $3,000

The Secrete series of photographs revolves around my ideas of a future where we will have engineered our bodies to secrete materials that are both desirable and functional. Think of how an oyster secretes its shell or a spider secretes a web. So many organisms make essential use out of what they produce physically. Right now, most of what we secrete as humans (aside from those things that can easily be decorated such as hair and nails) we immediately wipe away, flush away, swab, cut, or shower off. But, what if we could engineer ourselves to create materials that wouldn’t be perceived as waste? What kinds of utensils would be created to collect these products? Would they be integrated into our domestic architecture as readily as toilets are now?

FAT DRAIN, 2002-3 Archival inkjet print 42 x 33 inches Ed 2/7 $1,800

The medicated patches in conjunction with the filtration system hooked up to the body enable this woman to drain small quantities of fat from her system while lying in the tub. Afterwards, the fat is fed to small tubular (and carnivorous) coral which process it. The end product is a form of jellied soap made from the coral processed human fat.