Six Figures
2024
augmented reality intervention
INTERVIEW
Six Figures was created for a custom augmented app, produced by the city of Basel, and curated by the city’s House of Electronic Art (HEK). It guides visitors throughout the historic Swiss city, known for its art fair and Modern art museums, to historically significant locations. Using the ARTour app, a user can see virtual monuments created by contemporary artists through the camera of their smart device. For the ARTour, Hart created an intervention at theTinguely Fountain, a work of art created by Basel artist Jean Tinguely in 1977. Hart's piece adds six virtual caryatids (a female embodiment of the column in Greek architecture) to the merry goings-on of the machine sculptures. These dancing figures carry vases of various bouquets of flowers above their heads: roses, tulips, daisies, dahlias, irises and daffodils. The flowers are in a continuous process of withering and regenerating – all at their own pace. The motif of wilting flowers is a recurring motif in the artist's work, referring both to a memento mori and to the still precarious position of women in art. The different shapes of the vases are inspired by historical objects, such as urns or well-known vases from classical modernism, which Hart interprets in virtual 3D models. We encounter Hart's sculptures of women at eye level. They invite us to look at the flowers and give the impression that they have just emerged from the water. The work is complemented by a sound design by Edmund Campion. His composition Processing History, which has been adapted to fit the app, refers to the growth of cells, which are renewed every seven years. This biological clock refers to the change and passing of time, which can also be experienced in the continuous cycle of the growth and decay of flowers. The virtual figures and objects are overlaid with a moving, animated pattern – this is also a recurring element in Hart's art, a kind of digital tapestry in which bodies become media screens.
Excerpt from a text by HEK curator, Sabine Himmelsbach
SIX FIGURES, an Augmented-Reality Intervention, 2024 from Claudia Hart on Vimeo.
