Blurring the Lines Between Art, Tech, and Design
Author:Sarah Virginia WhiteArtist Cliff Garten creates large-scale works that blur the lines between art, design and technology. “Digital engineering lets me draw what I can’t draw and think things I can’t think,” says Garten. In this four-by-two-foot illuminated sculpture, 49 layers of recycled plastic unfurl from a state-shaped base of stainless steel. The semitransparent sections reference three of the state’s signature characteristics—its growing population, its mounting environmental pressures and its wide-reaching influence. The man-versus-nature disparity between California’s meticulously drawn eastern border and the organically serrated shoreline was yet another inspiration for the artist. “You get the contour of the coast on one side, but the other is perfectly straight,” says Garten. “I love that.”
This article was published in California Home + Design’s Spring 2013 issue. Click here to subscribe.
