Robert Turriff

I had no idea why i was making this work, only after the culture crawl did i understand what i had created. My friend Matt asked me repeatedly, “Why are you making those objects” ,he also asked “You just don’t care what people think do you?” I would just answer him by saying “i have to make them.”   As soon as the basic forms were carved i noticed  when the individual objects were placed in an arrangement, there was a powerful dialogue between relationships  of the forms. These arrangements mimicked  erotic, biological, and artistic forms.  This was the first year that I participated in the Eastside Culture Crawl, I had  thousands of visitors over the three days. These photos (above) are of a interactive sculpture that i created for the culture crawl I estimate that there were over fifty different groups that arranged the sculpture varying from 1 to 7 participants. I asked people to arrange them in anyway they would like. It was interesting to watch how the the viewers became  participants, often there was a noticeable change in the domineer of the the participant after become active in the creation of a sculpture. Many viewers were shocked whenever i took apart the arrangement by  the last participants, they hadn’t witnessed the creation of that arrangement and considers it a finished resolved object.  At first with shock  the viewers would ask “Is it Ok to touch the the art?”.  I would  then pass a pieces of  the sculpture, i would only pass out an other piece when the last had been balanced. It was interesting observing the participants, some jumped there cue, some gave orders, others aided others to find balance, quite often they would realize there piece could only be a support, and sacrifice the desire to balance there piece dynamically to act as a base for the next person. The ablity to focus on task with strangers gave the chance to communicate by creating.

http://www.eastsideculturecrawl.com/artists/turriff-robert

untitled Female figure 2010, 30 by 9 inches.  This sculpture is made from black annealed steel wire and using a mig welder.

I am presently still working on this piece.

Youtube video clip

it happened while we were speaking

It happened while we were speaking,is made from welded steel, I created this piece to draw a connection between  humans and nature.   The frog skeleton resembles our own skeleton, this frogs skeleton is larger then ours, to create the tension of being confronted by a larger being then ourselves. Frogs are typically very small and very delicate, It happened while we were speaking, is monstrous and threatening not easily ignored. The plight of frogs in our environment is a paradigm of the problems faced by every living create on earth. Pollution and toxins are absorbed easily by Frogs, since frogs breathe and drink through their skin. Frogs existence is linked directly to humankind’s actions. Skeletons typically represent death and mortality, this skeleton honors the humanity in the flesh and the embodiment of consciousness. The eyes of the frog have a video playing behind glass lenses, the video shows butterflies in a jungle setting. The frogs eyes create a window onto nature contrasting starkly with the large metal almost alien metal sculpture.  Gazing into the frogs eyes reenforces our connections to nature.

Robert Turriff is a communicator, artifice constructor, craftsman who lives and works in Vancouver. Robert creates settings, scenarios and objects that encourage participation and interaction. Robert’s work is accessible. He seeks that youthful amazement by providing the viewer with the opportunity to leave their mark and play through his pieces. This interaction is evidence of perception broken free from static viewing, providing a space for the audience to engage with each other through the work. Rob believes static beauty is not enough when one is competing with the contemporary distractions of social media, selective advertising, video games, and reality TV lives, etc. Through his work, he creates objects mixing different elements of “idiosyncratic” nature to evoke emotions. His pieces often involve kinetic and interactive elements.

It happened while we were speaking.

Some of my friends websites

http://www.meagsfitzgerald.com/

http://www.humanate.com/

http://www.samanthawalrod.com/

http://www.lsbenschopinstitute.blogspot.com/

http://www.5galloncreative.com/

http://www.centralprops.com

http://www.ashleywatson.net/

http://www.mattmasters.com/

http://www.thebownesians.com/

http://www.kabukiburlesque.com/

http://www.sanjalukac.com/

This interactive sculpture is reminiscent of Buddhist prayer wheels in Tibet. Prayer wheels create a prayer of compassion when they are spun. The five colors of the Led’s and the orientation borrow from feng-shui and strive to represent harmony. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReP3bWSPujQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQGN8zb56k this one has the vancouver opening

LunarFest 2010
January 22 – February 28th, 2010

The Asian-Canadian Special Events Association and Public Dreams Society proudly present LunarFest 2010. LunarFest is a lantern festival and International art exchange between Canada and Taiwan, which runs from January 22nd to February 28th on Granville Street between Robson and Georgia in Vancouver.

LunarFest celebrates the Lunar New Year and the 2010 Winter Olympics by bringing together the diversity of cultures, grassroots community spirit and the creativity of artists. LunarFest 2010 presents stunning visual art installations by 10 Canadian and Taiwanese contemporary artists, a story wall projection, a lantern forest and a spectacular lantern procession.

Love, Life and Light is an exhibition of installations that brings together four Canadian and six Taiwanese artists in an International art exchange and residency. Six Taiwanese artists lived and worked in Vancouver for two months during the summer of 2009. During this time they explored the city and drew inspiration from the environment and local art scene. Similarly, this past winter, four Vancouver artists went to Taiwan to explore and make work about their concerns and their experiences abroad. This resulted in 10 large scale lanterns which incorporate elements of light into their structure.

The story wall will be a series of projections showcasing stories from around the world whose purpose is to enlighten and inspire. A lantern forest will be made of 2,010 dazzling lanterns designed by schoolchildren from Taiwan and Canada all in the spirit of the Olympics. A lantern procession will also take place on February 13th and 14th to kick off the Lunar New Year and the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The goal and legacy of LunarFest 2010 is to create a dialogue and an exchange of artistic ideas to bring about a contemporary understanding of cultural life and creative production in both cities. We see this exchange as a positive move in establishing friendships, connections and creating awareness of celebrating art, diversity, love and life. LunarFest 2010 showcases collaborative workshops and exchanges between Taiwan and Canada artists, young and old, from both continents come together to create, build and showcase a unique form of lantern making to welcome the world to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympics Winter Games and the Cultural Olympiad.

http://www.lunarfest.org/programs/love-life-light

I have installed my sculpture in the Huashan Creative Park. The Huashan Creative Park was an abandoned rice wine factory in the heart of downtown Taipei that has been transformed into an art center for nonprofit and cultural events.

http://www.huashan1914.com/en/story.html

The Installation of my piece required a great amount of trouble shooting and tinkering. The installation of my sculpture took two full days of earnest hard work. I had three weeks to create my sculpture titled Compassion Generator. In the three weeks I had to source the materials for the sculpture carryout the metal fabrication with a TIG welder that I have little to no experience using, compound this with not being able to speak Chinese, and being removed from my traditional support group, all this combined to make it a stressful three weeks.  I challenged myself by using a very complex electronic component to my piece. So to recap I had to, source materials, fabricate, plan and solder 5 circuits, paint, disassemble, and ship.   This meant that I had very little time to test and tune the work before the show.

This project was an exercise in perseverance and hard work. The project pushed the boundaries of my creative process, giving me a sense of self-reliance that I never possessed before this.

The Taiwanese people have been so gracious and helpful, a great experience that will forever change me.

I Heart Taiwan!!!

More information to follow…

Event listing for the show
http://web.huashan1914.com/exhibition/playing_detail.php?cate=exhibition&id=104

Scooters

Bruce and I were was out back of our studio, I was testing my motor and bearing mounts, Bruce was setting up his sculpture for documentation. The neighbor across the lane a fine wood worker, was checking out my creation, I showed him the lights and the circuit he said “beautiful!” And then I made a bell sound “ding ding ding” and the motion of shaking a bell, he gave me a helmet and started the scooter  and we were off. We entering the swarm of scooters on a busy hectic Saturday night, this was my first scooter ride in Taiwan, I must explain how many scooters there are here they seem to outnumber cars 2 two 1 or even more, at first there appears to be no laws or rules or patterns but, after having a chance to join the swarm the rules became more obvious.

Bells summon ghosts… oops

So after buying 23 little brass bells I find out that there is a superstition that the ringing of bells summons ghosts. I have been watching a fair bit of cable television as research to gain understanding of a few basic pop culture undercurrents, so bells summon ghosts. The Ghosts hop with there legs together and hold there arms out. I watched a 1990’s movie that featured these rather silly looking ghosts. I asked Ken about bells and ghosts thing he explained to me that when you ring a bell you summon ghosts, but his mom interjected that its only when you ring the bell in a demanding way but she added ”a soft ring is ok.” So the idea of incorporating sound in my sculpture is still on hold.

This is a picture of the building were our art show will be held

New Biography

Robert Turriff lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. He graduated in 2009 from the Alberta College of Art +Design receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture. Robert’s current works are interactive pieces with kinetic and or mechanical elements employing sensors, electronics, video, and sound. In his sculptures, Robert reflects on the meaning of humanity by mixing elements from different cultures. Robert also considers how human made systems interact with nature. By questioning our relationship to the environment, Robert illustrates humankind’s disconnect from nature, drawing attention to the industrial processes of human society, which are systematically disrupting the functionality of the earth’s ecosystems.

The poster for the show

Artist Statement

Compassion generator
Robert Turriff

The concept for this piece draws upon different traditions of Asian cultures. This artwork encourages interaction, thus transforming the viewer into a participant. This sculpture allows everyone to enhance the celebratory, inclusive, and festive atmosphere. The sculpture has five sides, five cylinders, and five colors of LED’s. The colors of the LED’s, and the orientation borrow from the ideas of feng shui and strive to represent harmony. Fusing the five elements with the spinning cylinders is reminiscent of Buddhist prayer wheels in Tibet. Tibetan prayer wheels create a prayer of compassion when they are spun. This work shares the idea of compassion as its founding idea. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

This is an image the structure that supports the spinning cylinders. I still have some painting and assembly to do for the opening on the 28th of November in Taipei.

I must apologize for the lack of posts lately, I have been working like a maniac to finish the extremely technical parts of my sculpture. This includes five circuits that took five days of solid work, sourcing the electronic components, designing and layout, cutting and stripping wire, and soldering. For my project I am using a motor to generate power to light my piece with super bright LED’s, each circuit has a 555 chip (as a clock), and a 10 pin step counter (to make the lights twinkle), a few capacitors and 20 transistors and 40 + resistors all soldered into a board, and around 60 + little jumper wires, the most complex electronic project that I have attempted.

On Thursday while I was working I felt a soft rocking motion, I asked Bruce, “Did you feel that? ” we both noticed the bottles on the bar were moving in unison. We quickly left the studio/bar and stood outside for a few minutes. That night when I turned on the TV there were reports of an Earthquake a 5.7 on the Richter scale.

Bruce has a small army helping him find plastic beverage containers, this is a relief to me, he was relying on me to drink juice and water to keep him supplied, but now he has a bottle army headed up by Ken’s Mother (ken owns our studio a bar called VS talking bar) she is a super passionate about art and has been a immense help to Bruce and I.

One of our favorite restaurants for dinner is a kabob style bbq house, you can point at the food on the skewers. Bruce is a little apprehensive going to restaurants without pictures of the food or something you can point at.  Doris our waitress at our bbq restaurant. every time we return for dinner Doris has learned more English and gets better at explaining things. The first few cuts of chicken Bruce and I ordered were not really what we were expecting. Doris now knows the names of the different parts of the animals, so our favorite cut of chicken is “bum”. Food is on skewers then placed in a metal shaft with gears on it, these gears rotate the kabobs stacked horizontally in front of open face burner, really nice machine! (efficient and yummy).Mos burger instead of a wheat bun they use rice formed in a bun shape, I had the kimchi pork burger so freaking good kicks mc d’s ass. Dumplings= LOVE, there is a dumpling store a few doors down from our hotel, the dumplings they are so tasty and served with shredded ginger, soya sauce, and sesame seed oil, soooooo yummy. A restaurant specializing in goose is right across from our Hotel. We ordered goose over bean sprouts and bamboo soup, and a side of rice, yummy fatty goodness oh yeah and shredded ginger very popular here.Our favorite place for lunch is a little stand on a scooter only street they serve Pork breaded cutlet over cabbage and wasabi mayo and a sprinkling of corn.

Paint House studio and gallery

We visited The Painthouse, is a gallery and studio space. Located down a narrow ally in Tainan, The building has been transformed into an arts space over its nine-year history. The entire building is a piece of art featuring many interesting architecture elements, there is a large external structure on the roof. The interior space of the Painthouse has been utilized to the max. The Painthouse has shows every month since 2000. The Paint house serves to unite the arts community. In Taiwan the paint house is quite famous in Taiwan receiving press in many publications.

Ken and his wife took us to many temples and cultural landmarks all over Tainan, Ken showed Bruce and I how to perform rituals and deciphered the meanings of the sculptures and the layout of the temple. Bruce and I burned paper and lit incense and burned special paper bundles

Tom & Cease

No more translator, Bruce and I are on our own… here we go!!!

Bruce has a mandarin handbook -but it’s useless since Taiwan uses the old mandarin script. Luckily I have an iphone application for mandarin. Even this doesn’t cut it the application uses Beijing dialect, (over pronounced) Someone told me I need to relax regarding my pronunciation - I don’t have to try so hard.

On Saturday evening, the city came alive! There were so many scooters, the sidewalks became full of people, bars opened, and the city took a lively weekend feel. While walking to get dinner outside a temple, we stumbled upon a large group of people rehearsing for a religious ceremony. An elderly gentleman motioned to me to put on the puppet -its kind of like a backpack that makes you eight feet tall. The costumes that we had were armature for costumes that are coved with decorated fabric beneath exquisitely crafted faces. I pointed to Bruce (because he is into this kinda thing being a burning man kinda chap). Then I put one on as well. The cool thing about these puppets was that they were boxing puppets! - You had to get a certain cadence to walk and make them swing their arms in a convincing way. Bruce and I both walked the walk and threw a few punches, but the old men were not impressed. They kept yelling at us to not lean so far forward . Next we were invited to a ceremony in the temple. It’s hard to explain the experience inside the temple, but let me try to sum it up: chanting, epic carvings – beyond imagination, maximalism- totally over the top madness! Young, old, male, female inclusiveness- not your normal religious ceremony! The two puppets were at either side of the temple facing each other down. It turns out that one of the puppets could see for thousands of miles, the other could hear everything.

Sunday morning was a bit quieter than the average day. Businesses opened late and the streets were a bit quieter, or so it seemed until the processions began. Every temple (and there are a lot of them in Tainan) began a procession at around 11 am. There was cacophony of groups moving up and down the streets. Some had dragons and others had shrines supported on the shoulders of participants. They bounced the shrines up and down with horns and drums. At one point in almost every direction you could see a procession!

The studio that Bruce and I have been set up in is a bar called VS Talking Bar. The bar is a narrow two-story structure, approximately twelve feet wide and fifty feet long. On Monday, the steel was dropped off and I started the welder – (unfortunately giving my arms a bit of a sunburn). So finally, after collecting materials for days -and driving around in what seemed like a endless journey (it was maybe a ten block radius) our shop was set up with tools and materials! Bruce and I began creating our artwork. I was cutting steel and setting up equipment. Bruce jumped into his work. We both felt good getting something started at last. The jetlag caught up with us, so we returned to our hotel (a five-minute walk from our studio). I was awoken by explosions (not just firecrackers) but heavy duty ordinance, the bombs shook the window!

Our friend Sharon came to pick us up and we asked her if anything special was happening today? The girls at the front desk giggled and said that there are so many temples- its like this every Sunday.

Bruce and I were invited to the opening of a sculpture symposium that focused on woodcarving. The wood came from the east coast of Taiwan after a storm devastated the region, “The storm dumped 6 feet (2 meters) of rain in some locations in southern Taiwan, triggering massive flooding and mudslides in and around some 40 villages. About 700 people died. Old growth trees are protected by the Taiwanese government. After the storm artists received permission to use this windfall. There was a very similar situation after a storm in Vancouver knocked down trees in Stanley Park. The artists at the symposium were Austronesian, aboriginals native to Taiwan from the east coast. This is where Cease And Tom are staying. The indigenous peoples of Taiwan face economic and social barriers, including a high unemployment rate and substandard education. Many Aboriginal groups have been actively seeking a higher degree of political self-determination and economic development since the early 1980s. This echoes the same challenges faced by indigenous people of Canada. The opening was great. They know how to party! The opening had a pig-roast, beer keg and lots of live music by the campfire. If you know me at all -you know this is my scene! They had live Taiwanese reggae and the aboriginal folksy music sounded very similar to west coast indigenous music.

Bruce buys me drinks based on what the bottles look like not what is inside, he recycles used beverage containers and enjoys utilizing any bottle that has an interesting shape or texture.

More to follow…

After a 14 hour flight, the longest flight of my life and the furthest in the world to the East I have ever been, my expectations for the exoticism of Asia, have been dulled due to my exposure in Vancouver, from everything to cars imported from Asia such as the Delica Van which in East Vancouver you can’t go a minute without seeing one, to the urbanization of this tropical island. Combine this with my fondness of Asian cuisine that is in easy supply in Vancouver, the only thing that I am taken aback by was the smog. Granted it makes nice sunsets, but its bad for the sinuses and the environment. Also, the Buddha statues and the incredibly decorative temples, some of them are over the top. The Buddha’s are massive and numerous!  Oh, and scooters! Scooters everywhere! I overheard a conversation between Cease, a participant in our exchange, and her daughter Senaqwila who asked,  “So what’s Taiwan like?” Cease responded “It’s like Chinatown FOREVER” Later in our day, I commented to Tom another Canadian member of our exchange, that “I haven’t seen a single white person in our travels yet”, and Tom responded “ It feels no different then being in my neighborhood in Vancouver” I think all of us are quite familiar with being immersed in Asian culture in Vancouver were there are just pockets of Asia but here the pockets are everywhere!

I am staying at the Taiwan National Craft Research Institute. We were taken on a tour by or host Mr. Yau, at a large well-kept campus featuring many pieces of outdoor art, with beautiful amazing equipped ceramics, wood, and bamboo studios. A computer lab with c and c machines, 3d routers, and other technologies. A very supportive place with vast resources, a plethora of tools and great workshops with huge pieces of equipment metal lathe, giant boring tool, etc. Our accommodations are dorm like facilities, clean and safe and sit down shitters.

Tom, one of my fellow Canadian artists and Cease were introduced to the bamboo Master Shiu–Feng Lin.  She showed the group different types of bamboos and even fired up a few machines that process bamboo for weaving and fabricating and also demonstrated basic hand tools used to split and finish wood. Then we went to the Basement of the building where the real artists are kept! The sculptor Studio had a large wood and metal shop.    Metal forge and stone carving, and we met the metal and stone teachers, and the sculpture teacher made us a badly needed coffee after being in transit for such a long time.  Then after a short break we were invited to attend the bamboo societies yearly meeting, there were probably twenty people showing their design of to the design instructor for critical feedback.

In this culture there seems to be attention placed on objects from nature that show evidence of the forces of nature. They uses these objects incorporation them in both form material and not denying the forces of nature, but using the elements that are found in a stone or a piece of wood and being able to recognize repetition and patterns and forms contained in objects created by the forces of the sea, wind, growth and decay, and a bit of fire

Guilds, associations, craft councils and research government sponsored organizations seem to work with artists and craftspeople to help then get exposure by publishing research and providing lessons with masters. Mr. Yau said that such programs like the (30NT=1 $Canadian) for Taiwanese artist to attend six-week courses at the TNCRI very cheap. In the same area of the city there are large buildings displaying a specific craft such as the bamboo, or across the street it is reeds a grass type materials/rattan weaving they have someone showing displaying the craft and usually a collection of both traditional utilitarian uses for the material and also contemporary non-functional pieces as well.

Overall what my impression is the Arts in Taiwan are very well funded and respected but also closely tied with craft. We haven’t been in contact with the fine art and academic side of the art world yet. I really like the crafty folk! They can make stuff! And have respect for the time it takes to make a well crafted object! And a deep respect for tradition.

We drove to a Bamboo processing plant were Tom picked up his Bamboo material for his in Nantou County interior of Taiwan.

Bruce, a fellow sculptor and exchange participant who has visited Asia and more specially China on numerous occasions, brought up the point that not knowing how to read Mandarin, and attempting to buy food for him in the past, meant that he would walk down streets until he could find a menu with English on it. I bring this up because as we were sitting in an oyster restaurant where everything we ordered had oyster in so form, there were no pictures or English that would have given an idea what type of restaurant it was. We were taken there by our hosts and would of never experienced this gooey some times raw goodness.

Tom, another member of our exchange, commented numerous times throughout the day that Taiwan “felt empty”, that it wasn’t busy, like Vancouver, Seattle, North American and of European cities the rush hour was not so pronounced, we noticed that there were less power centers (wall marts/big box stores) and more of a variety of shops that are more specialized. The use of scooters is quite typical. This was observed by all of in our group. Our impressions were also affected by not being use to the schedule here in Taiwan, because later at night at around 6 the city became quite busy.

Our first meal, yummy