Machines

 

Delegating tasks is very common among artists these days. Indeed, not much attention is paid to who exactly does what. Many of Mihkel Ilus’ works receive their final touch under a machine, be it a laser beam or a hydraulic press on an anvil. He often delegates great expressive gestures to machines, reserving for himself only the decorative (or even superficial) gestures of final formatting. Looking around the exhibition space, you can guess which things are done by the artist and which ones by machine.

Paul Kuimet likes to combine analogue technology with digital devices. For example, the way one frame blends into another in his film Material Aspects can only be achieved by digital means. A Brief History of Scaffolding and Crystal Grid were photographed on film and then enlarged in a darkroom; Crystal Grid was additionally cut and glued by hand.