Water and sound into art – Finnbogi Pétursson

My favourite kind of art is that which makes us think about the natural environment and the elements; works that combine art and life. Finnbogi Pétursson– from Iceland – does just that. He creates video works that feature the textures and forms created by water. Fusing sound and water with sculpture and digital media, his projects often evoke the patterns and forms of the natural world.

Finnbogi Pétursson, Reset (2011)

In Circle, for example, he installed large loudspeakers suspended over a darkened pit that was filled with water; the sound wave rippled the surface of the water at regular intervals and created a sense of motion, a still yet reliably repetitive pattern. These shapes were then reflected onto the wall by a projector, which literally visualised the sound coming out of the speakers, turning sound into form and water into art.

Circle

Pétursson’s work transforms primary materials – sound and water – into sculptural elements – and asks us to reimagine what might constitute ‘scultpure’ itself. Not confined to the strictly three-dimensional, Pétursson’s works throw certain media into new perspectives by incorporating them into the sculptural sphere, reflecting their patterns and qualities onto different surfaces.

Earth (2010)

The Watertanks, Water-Earth

Both water and sound are temporal structures – they have an ability to define and measure but are essentially formless. Pétursson’s sculptures combine them in a way that visualises their immaterial form, and therefore asks us to think about these natural elements as sculptural mediums.

Via Triangulation.