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A founder
of art works using light, Martin has, since the 60's, created seminal
new media works. As early as 1968, Howard Wise called his work "cybernetic"
for the way he applied information processes. In his works "Well"
and "Interaction Room," the electronic systems were the
interface between the viewer and the event and process of the sculpture
or installed environment. He created the electronic and optical configurations
for these in his own studio, and when necessary, commissioned help
from the new generation of engineers and scientists forging new ways
and methods.
A painter
from the outset, Martin has also devoted himself to using pure processes
of light and simultaneous projected imagery in motion. The legendary
visual compositions produced at the San Francisco Tape Music Center
and Bill Graham's Fillmore West, stand as early testament to his
love of "painting in time," and to his involvement with
music from an early age. Exhibitions of his paintings at the Boreas
and Batman Galleries coincided with the Fillmore light shows and
Tape Music Center events. Martin has worked intensively with such
composers as Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick and David Tudor.
The
dominant character and approach of these works is visual experience,
which, as he says, must have a language of its own. This is based
on his immersion in our legacy of art; specifically, he has drawn
upon the ancient art of China, painting of the 1600's in Northern
and Southern Europe and American Post WW II.
Prime works that championed viewer interaction began in 1962 with
Martin's first multisensory environmental piece, "Theater For
Walkers, Talkers, Touchers." This was a commission by the Anna
Halprin Dance Company for the San Francisco Museum Of Art. In these
and current works Martin distributes variable thematic content through
switching systems and optics activated by the viewers, principles
of resonance and feedback are applied through photo and proximity
electronics. In Martin's collaboration with David Tudor for the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company, all resonant information gathered from the
dancers' movements, light events, and sound created a truly interdependent
yet freely
variable event. These concepts were dominant in his light system for
the E.A.T. Pepsi Pavilion at Expo 70, Osaka, Japan, and also in his
groundbreaking vector image work shown at P.S. 1. during 1980. In
sculptural works such as The Well, a 40" copper cylinder, viewers
experience and influence light imagery both inside and above the "light
well." Such signature works point to Martin's career-long attention
to the inner life of the individual within the complex dynamics of
our interwoven lives. Their resonance can be found in paintings that
steadily emphasize opportunities for viewers to "look into rather
than at."
In 1993,
Martin helped co-found The Painting Center, with the aim of providing
exhibition space to both emerging and mature painters pursuing different
formal directions. His exhibitions of painting and drawing reveal
Martin's characteristic synthesis of emotionality and thoughtfulness:
open, receptive space coherent with high tension. The forms, texture,
and light and dark originate in seeing. Recent exhibitions of the
past five years include shows at the New York Studio School, Musee
d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and galleries in The Netherlands.
Two new media works "Over Under Across," a six minute work
for video projection, and a half hour combined projection composition
for Morton Subotnick's "Sidewinder," show the dynamic interdependence
of Martin's painting, drawing and work using new technology. Electronic
Arts Intermix recently commissioned a new work for the web. To view
and participate in this piece go to www.eai.org
and follow instructions for Galaxy.
Tony Martin's personal papers are available for research at The Fales Library
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