New Media Artists

Two New Media Artists that interest me are Eric Ehlenberger, and Can Altay.

Eric Ehlenberger is a contemporary sculptor working with neon lights, metal, and glass, resulting in beautiful luminous three dimensional sculptures. Today he is based out of the French Quarter in New Orleans, where he has his own studio. Eric Ehlenberger’s interest in these materials began when he was a child, when he was fascinated with prisms, rainbows, and colored light. In 1983, he began to take his interests to the next level. He attended various New Orleans universities, where he developed skills in glassblowing, welding, and glass castings.

His inspirations came from the Impressionist’s use of color and light to develop mood. Such as the Abstract Expressionist who focused on non-objective interpretations and emphasis on the elegance of simplicity. He also found inspiration through the form in Asian culture. “His approach presents sculptures as meditations of form and color”- Profile. He explores the visual impact of luminous color and simple form by combining neon lights with glass and brushed metal. He also has inspirations from landscapes, where he creates environments in his sculptures. His work has been featured in the New Orleans Magazine, the Times Picayune, the Sun Herald, and on HGTV’s Extreme Homes.

I choose Eric Ehlenberger because I really enjoyed seeing that through his complex inspirations he was able to break it down, into an elegant simplistic form, focusing on geometric shapes and lights and shadows. The process of eliminating and creating beauty through simplicity is something I think takes a lot of talent, and I look up too. I also enjoyed on his profile seeing what others have said about his work. Such as- “Light belongs to the heart and spirit. Light attracts people, it shows the way, and when we see it in the distance, we follow it.”
Ricardo Legorreta – architect
“Reflecting on the relationships between color and form, Ehlenberger creates a dynamic tension
between the action suggested by the arcs and the stability represented by the geometric forms.”-Profile

Can Altay is an artist who combines both architecture and installations. It deals with spatial appropriations, social encounters and forms of human improvisation within urban structures. He researches and records the daily life of urban dwellers primarily in his home city of Ankara and Istanbul. He focuses on ordinary routines and social trends compared to the confines of official architectural spaces and their designated uses. He creates multi-media installations from a collection of projected images, photos, sound and text. He does little to direct the viewer, allowing he or she to find his or her own way through. The interactive works asks the viewer to spend time, watch, listen, and dwell within them.

In 2001 he produced a series called the Minibar, which was shown in Istanbul. He examines groups of young people gathering in outdoor spaces between residential and commercail buildings at night to socialize. The slide projections show blurry action night shots and sound recordings and then contrasting images of the same spaces in their “official” daylight hours. I really liked his concept about studying the design of spaces and how people navigate through them and how people actually use the spaces. This is something I am constantly trying to be aware of and I thought it was interesting his technique on portraying what he found to the public.

http://www.ehlenberger.com/Portfolio%202007v-comp.pdf

http://www.freewaves.org/artists/c_altay/