Alma Alloro

Apophenia

Work by Alma Alloro

January 4

through January 25, 2014

Apophenia /æpɵˈfiːniə/ is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

Apophenia is a collection of works by Alma Alloro exploring the possibilities — and limitations — of an artist's aura in a digitally-oriented world. The exhibition consists of a series of hand drawings and animations, installed alongside a machine that manually creates animation. Alloro’s works invite the viewer to simultaneously experience both the animation itself alongside the exposed analog apparati that produces it.

Alloro’s meticulous hand drawings make manifest the notion of repetition, a yearning for the infinite. Within the patterns that emerge, however, individual fragments of the animation reveal their lack of continuous identity — a tacit acknowledgement of the imperfections of the human hand.

Meanwhile, a kinetic machine generates colorful spinning surfaces broadcast via closed-circuit television. This screen — part of a device intended for the reading of printed matter, and which once helped Alloro’s late grandfather compensate for his low vision — becomes a site of color and motion. Says Alloro:

“In its afterlife, the device exposes a ubiquitous short sightedness, rendering users of every generation blind to other potential (mis)uses of technology.”

With Apophenia, Alloro considers the kinds of aesthetic effects that still lie beyond the scope of digital practice: what can be made with bare hands that can’t be made with a computer? And further, what new means still belong to the realm of tradition, yet embrace new potentials made possible by the digital?

Alma Alloro (b. 1982, Tel Aviv) is a contemporary retro-futuristic artist living and working in Berlin. Her work spans a variety of media, including drawing, sculpture, and music composition and performance. She has shown with The Store in Berlin, P8 Gallery in Tel Aviv, Furtherfield Gallery in London, Spacebar Gallery in Linz, and Eigenheim Gallery in Weimar.

Alma studied fine art at the Midrasha School of Art, Beit-Berl, Israel, and received her MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies from Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, Germany.

More info at AlmaAlloro.com