Dear Meagan Streader,
This letter is way overdue in more than a couple of ways. I’m going to dive into the things I find awesome about what you create, but first forgive a little digression.
For the last few months I have been trying to balance out who I follow on social media. My feed was so male dominated it wasn’t funny, eventually I decided I would try and follow an equal number of men and women. Long story short, my social media is more balanced but certainly not equal. And the net result has been overwhelmingly positive, a vastly more interesting and pleasant place to browse. My list of influences though? Still completely messed up. I’m trying to fix it.
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Shh. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m kinda a closeted geometry nerd. I love the stuff, you won’t believe how excited I get when I have the opportunity to bust it out when I write software. The set of spatial drawings you recently made in New York gave me a huge blast of this geometry induced oxytocin.
I also don’t know much about art or aesthetics, and the only decent way I have ever been able to learn anything is by doing. For the past little while I have been making odds and ends heavily influenced by Tom Sachs. Pull something apart, write some software and put it back together in the most ‘Sachsian’ way I can manage. I guess I’m a bit like those shitty bands covering Pearl Jam in the back of an RSL club. Except I’m writing software and making fan art?
Anyway, a new friend of mine wanted to collaborate on an interactive light thing for an electronic music festival. It was all fitted to a large aluminium hexagon tunnel. My first response: “Hey! Do you know the work of Meagan Streader? She is an awesome Australian artist, she makes these amazing ‘tronscapes’ out of EL wire. Maybe we could do something like that?” I gotta be honest here: initially I got a blank stare back. But I persisted. “Here. Lemme show you.”
We ended up building something out of LED strips that was a random noise pattern till someone was inside the tunnel. Then it would burst out and yell ‘Meagan!’, all the LEDs would come on and approximate a hexagonal manifestation of your EL wire spatial drawings. It was only just for a brief moment as they past, maybe a second? So I guess we kinda subliminally blasted your work at punters as they arrived to get their dance on.
In the process of creating our tron tunnel I discovered a hidden element of your work. Your recent adoption of cool white lights leaves you with an awesome minimalist palette. It lets the geometry, light and shadows do all the work. It feels like it is from the future. A fantastic future full of mars colonies and electric cars.
I’m really looking forward to your next creations.
Love,
Clinton Freeman.
P.S. I have a quick question: Who are your top five influences?
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