MIT Museum's group exhibition "5,000 Moving Parts" includes Anne Lilly
Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 03:22PM This fall I had the opportunity to experience Lilly's newest sculpture, To Conjugate, in the exhibition "5000 Moving Parts" at the MIT Museum, curated by Laura Knott. The show opened November 21st and will run for one year. It's a great show of kinetic art with sculptures by Arthur Ganson, John Douglas Powers, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
"Anne Lilly has for years made pristine stainless steel sculptures, often featuring several rods connected to gears. They look like machines until they start to dance, tilting and circling in unexpected concert. Two such smaller pieces are here, including one, “To Caress,” which sweetly tickles your hand with swaying fronds of metal. But her new, large-scale interactive work, “To Conjugate,” takes her in new directions.
You’ll need a partner for this one. That grounds it in the nature of relationships, collaboration, and the balance of power. Two people sit back to back in tractor seats, and one by one push up from the floor, as if on a seesaw. The seats connect to a pair of old red flywheels that once helped run a horse-drawn fire engine. With these materials, the artist forsakes the perfect gleam of stainless steel for the patina of antiques, and the whiff of history weaves with the complicated give-and-take of partnering." Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe: '5000 Moving Parts' at MIT Museum (Art Review)
Below, experiencing To Congugate with Anne Lilly at the MIT Museum, Nov.2013
