Installation view at “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Architectural design and fabrication by MUECKE.
Structural steel design: A Degree of Freedom.
Interaction design, lighting design, and animation design: Dave & Gabe.
Video documentation of "Adaptation of an Instrument" at "Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
ADAPTATION OF AN INSTRUMENT, 2016
Steel, plywood, perforated aluminum, acrylic sheets, vinyl welding screen, vinyl- and urethane-coated laminate flooring, vinyl strip doors with mounting hardware, LEDs, motion-sensitive computer system, hardware, polyurethane foam inserts, hot-rolled steel panels with patina, protective wax, urethane resin, dye, amphibian props used in the film Magnolia (1999)
Collection of the artist; courtesy New Galerie, Paris
Produced with support from Pomeranz Collection, Vienna
Dora Budor's immersive environment continuously reacts to our presence: light pulses up and down the walls according to the level of activity within, in motions modeled after the neurological pathways in the human body. The presence of visitors brings Budor's "instrument" to life, reanimating the image on its ceiling through a conduction of impulses, as though triggering a memory. That memory here is the amphibian rain scene of the Hollywood film "Magnolia" (1999). By incorporating thousands of special-effect prop frogs used in the film, the luminous ceiling of the work serves to deconstruct the film into its constitutive elements: physical objects and light.