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