Volume (Renwick), 2015

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, DC

Image Credit: © Smithsonian / RON BLUNT   

Located in the stairway inside the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., Villareal’s light sculpture Volume (Renwick) captivates museum goers as they wander through the museum. Only part of Villareal’s artwork is visible in the materials suspended above the staircase. The physical body of the artwork serves primarily as a vehicle for the visual manifestation of code–an artist-written algorithm employing the binary system of 1s and 0s telling each LED when to turn on or off. This simple command creates lighting sequences that will never repeat exactly as before. It also changes how we think of code, from a line of characters that can be read on any screen into an artistic object that can be witnessed at a museum. 

To learn more about the Smithsonian and this and other artworks on display, visit: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/volume-renwick-110500