Gallery: Intricate Gizmos That Do Nothing but Hold Themselves Up
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Dan Grayber, an artist based in California, builds intricate structures that do nothing but hold themselves up. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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He's currently showing a collection of pieces at Johansson Projects in Oakland, California. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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In 2004, Grayber began a several-year inquiry into mechanisms that clung to walls in one way or another--contraptions that used springs and weights and counterweights to claw their way into gallery drywall. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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In 2008, he built a spring-loaded gizmo that wedged itself inside a glass vitrine. That one felt right, and he's been doing variations on the theme ever since. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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Grayber is a master of tension--both physical force and the emotional state. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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His artworks can give the impression of some sort of dangerous alien technology that's merely dormant, not dead, and just waiting for some provocation or maybe just a signal from the mothership to spring to life. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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Each work is a perfectly self-contained specimen--a notion that's certainly reinforced by their presentation. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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A detail of one of his complex constructions. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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But as Grayber is well aware, the idea of perfect, hermetically sealed functionality can only keep us so rapt. What's really compelling is fragility--the possibility that things can go wrong. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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So while Grayber might have started with the simple aim of inventing things that held themselves up, of late he's been more interested in building things that hold themselves up--but just barely. These days, he says, "I really want the work to exist in a delicate equilibrium--just beyond the point of failure." *Photo: Dan Grayber*
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*Photo: Dan Grayber*
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*Photo: Dan Grayber*
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His artworks can give the impression of some sort of dangerous alien technology that's merely dormant, not dead, and just waiting for some provocation or maybe just a signal from the mothership to spring to life. *Photo: Dan Grayber*
