Fossilized auto paint from car production lines (aka ‘Detroit agate’), data mined from protesters using social media and the patterns of Namibian termite mounds are all materials for Agnieszka Kurant’s recent sculpture, now on view in Tribeca at Marian Goodman Gallery. Whether her source inspiration comes from the activity of generations of factory works, millions of social media users or termites, Kurant’s work points to contemporary means of mass data collection, the uses it’s put to and the new ideas and forms that it can be used to generate. Here, a living 75-year old bonsai tree is joined with a 3-D-printed version of its possible future self, an appendage that not only visually predicts how this juniper bonsai tree species will evolve in the future but impacts its present growth. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 22nd. Note summer hours.)
