Nathan Green

meannnategreen@gmail.com

T: 412.965.2190

This site compliles documentation of artworks I completed while I was an undergraduate student at Bard College from 2002 to 2006. Throughout these projects, I was interested in establishing different levels of participation and spectatorship for my audience. Experimenting with different forms of sculpture as methodologies for community engagement and personal interaction, included on this site you will find variations of games, wearable objects, rides, functional objects and furniture

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Harp 2003, steel, string 2’w x 20’l x 10’h

Harp is a hybrid instrument, seesaw, exercise machine. A visitor may manipulate the sculpture in several different ways. One can play music by plucking the strings and cables under tension. One can also climb up or pull down on the ladder form, causing the harp form to stand nearly vertical.

Sole Artifacts from February 6-13, 2003, Duchess and Ulster Counties, NY 2003, steel, wood, shoes, laundry detergent tablets, BBs, hard candy, Starbursts, paper towel, joint compound, oil

Using shoes that I made which had a secret compartment on the sole, I performed a quasi-scientific experiment in which I wore the shoes for seven days. Each day, within the compartment, I kept a different household material that would be affected by my regular movements and activities.  At the end of the experiment, I had collected seven different artifacts of the week’s events in the form of the secret compartment.  In its final presentation, the evidence of the experiment was displayed on an easel which was mounted on a plywood platform. The raw plywood in turn recorded and left visible the trackings of the piece’s visitors.

Swing (top left, two riders using swing, 2002; top right, installation at the Tivoli Ice House on the Hudson; bottom, details 2003) steel, plastic  2’w x 14’l x 16’h

Swing is a ride to be experienced by two people. One person sits on the seat mounted to the central structure and can use the bicycle peddles and lift and lower the other rider who is sitting in the hanging boat form.

Carbon Copy Squash 2004, Squash game with a friend, Paper, Charcoal, pressure and motion sensors, motors, aluminum, steel, nylon string, 15’ x 40’ x 10’h

I lined the parameter of a squash court with sheets of homemade carbon paper and recorded the ball’s activity during a match with a friend. I then attempted to make a sculptural interpretation of the game with the document. I installed two sensors in the piece; a motion sensor at the entrance, which would cause the aluminum floor to rise when a visitor entered the “court”, and a pressure sensor in the handle of the sculpted racquet that communicated with servomotors hidden behind the ball-marked paper and caused the document to shake more vigorously as a visitor squeezed harder.

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such as:

Self Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man 2005, digitally altered family photographs re-printed as 4x6 photographs

I superimposed my current facial features (eyes, eyebrows, hair) onto photographs taken during my first year.

House of Golem 2006. steel, wood, mirrored mylar, plastic, light, mixed media. Room Dimensions: 20’ x 25’ x 13.5’ h

When making House of Golem, I considered forms and objects found in fun houses and haunted houses to make a theatrical, domestic space. When the visitor entered, he/she was immersed in an environment that was hardly recognizable as the “white cube” it previously was. This room included a vibrating staircase, a floating floor, curved mirrors, and a bouncing chandelier, all of which invited open interactivity from the visitors. I used different types of mirrors as a material that would allow the image of the visitor to be reflected and abstracted within the installation. I experimented with the placement of mirrors and light to create spatial disorientation. I also reflected light off the mirrors to generate ghost-like presences in the room.

Carousel 2006. Steel, Wood, Canvas, Papier-mâché, Foam, Motorcycle, Owen and Nate, Mixed-Media, Gallery Dimensions: 30’ x 40’ x 14’h

A collaborative project with Owenbe Schoppe, Carousel is an interactive, kinetic sculpture designed for two operators and up to 4 “riders”. Following primary activation of a hand-cranked mechanism the design of which was adapted from a traditional handicraft toy, a salvaged motorcycle retrofitted to provide consistent torque to the drive train powered the sculpture’s rotation. Major formal elements—the triangle (suspended overhead) and the ring (platform for riders), were caused to spin in opposite transverse directions enhancing the riders’ perceptions of movement and speed. Once underway, an array of lights mounted to cables moved in an oscillating vertical path adjacent to the sculpture’s central axis enhancing the experience of enchantment. The operators additionally activated an audio track adapted from Brecht’s Faustus surrounding the rider in sensory stimuli.