Amy Brener describes her sculptures as “totemic structures that resemble artifacts of an imagined future” . I think they look like a shimmering reinterpretation of Arthur C. Clarke’s super-evolved robotic monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or maybe a prototype of Sandbenders, the gemstone and resin computer system from Idoru.
Brener, who is Canadian-born but New York-based, uses fairly simple materials to create her works: cast resin imbued with neon and pastel pigment. Before the resin cures, she drops all kinds of electronic refuse — including circuit boards and keyboards — into the mould, which is usually lined with fabric to create distressed edges and wrinkles in the surface of the model. If you look closely, you’ll see clusters of diodes, fresnel lenses and an old Nokia brick phone on the fossil-like surfaces.
Brener’s an artist, first and foremost, but her sculptures also hint at an imagined set of technologies from the not-so-distant future. She explains:
Some surfaces are ordered into compositions that allude to touch-screen platforms, energy cells and the digital logic of a different reality. Other surfaces are left to chance: to crystallise, crack under pressure and weather with time… Some sculptures may be markers for an unknown border, while others hint at vehicular function.
We all know what old technologies really look like once they’ve been taken out behind the proverbial barn. But wouldn’t it be lovely if this were the reality?
