Monolithic block appears to levitate for Studio Drift’s Armory Show installation

A giant concrete-like cuboid seemingly defies gravity as it tilts and rotates in this installation by Studio Drift, shown at The Armory Show in New York.

The site-specific Drifter artwork comprises a cuboid measuring four by two by two metres, which appears to be suspended in midair within a three-sided white enclosure.

Patterned to look like heavy stone or concrete, the volume shifts its position by rotating and tilting, sometimes simultaneously, at different speeds.

The structural support used to keep the volume off the ground, and the mechanisms used to create its motion, are all hidden from view.

It is also unclear whether the movement is programmed to respond to human presence, or if it is random – another intentionally enigmatic feature.

“Drifter creates a sense of disbelief and displacement, creating tension between humanity versus nature and chaos versus order,” said Studio Drift, founded by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta.

Presented by Pace Gallery, the Drifter installation could be found at The Armory Show from 2 to 5 March 2017 at Piers 92 and 94, on New York’s West Side.

Studio Drift was set up by Gordijn and Nauta in 2006, after they studied at Design Academy Eindhoven together.

Their work spans the boundary between sculpture and design, and often incorporates movement in some way, as shown in previous works like a kinetic glass installation created for the 2015 Venice Art Biennale, and a set of flower-like lamps that randomly rise and fall as they “bloom”.

Photography and video are by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy of Pace Gallery.

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