Steven Rayner

Inout

2017. Interior Door,  LED lights, Micro controller, Energy pack, Air. Combining object, light and air created a vaporized surface confusing the issue of where the surface starts and ends. Digital cameras can’t capture it.

Chimo. Ongoing – Life size. Car rebuilt inside and out. The engine was changed to diesel so it could run on used fryer oil. Utilitarian sculpture to be seen on the street and in the gallery. Hopefully will be driven across Canada using galleries as filling stations. In light of recent opinions concerning diesel the project has taken on new life being changed to run on solar power.

Each object is weighed.Using reductive methods 85% of the object is removed. Air and light moves in to replace the plastic. The finished work is more air than object.

An ongoing series of images taken from the architectural interior space of plastic containers.

Flag + Everything. 2017.

Room of Light and Air. 2017. 20x18x10ft. Combining Sculpture, Landscape Gardening, Architecture and Lighting with natural elements. As daylight falls artificial light comes into play.

Snow Burn. 2013. 10x3ft. Air. Still shots from movie. This is one part of a series of sculptural investigations that address the possibilities of making work using air as a material Riffing on Rauschenberg’s Erased De Kooning drawing and John Cage’s 3minute 33 seconds and Michael Hiezers Double Negative. I made Snowburn by melting snow to create a space that air could fall down into and conceptually forming an air shape that was connected to the sky. It exists a video projection and photographic piece.

Flying. 2017.

Light jet prints.

Another attempt at dealing with anti-gravity.

An attempt to make anti gravity sculpture.

A sculpture made by adding 15 layers of pigment. when placed in direct sunshine it genterates 26 degrees more heat than the wall.

1976 VW Bus, Water, Sunlight, Time.

New Everything.

Drilled plastic barrel, Air, Natural Light, Artificial Light.

Thanks Ze Ke

Song for Judd

Plastic Gas Can, Air.

Song for Debra

Plastic Gas Can, Air.

Ocean Wanderer. 2015. Size variable. Air, Plastic barrel washed up on the beach on Quadra Island British Columbia. It had traveled from Argentina using ocean currents.

Tree On Allenford. 2008 – 3x3x4ft.Bear skin, Plexiglas, air pump. Bear inflates and deflates

A series of what I’m referring to as Conceptual LPs or sound recordings. They consist of plexi glass squares 12x12 inches of varying colours. Each piece is put on a specially made turntable and the sound is cut in using various tools such as nails or sandpaper. As the series progresses the albums are becoming more complex by adding one cut over another. For example one cut of rough sandpaper over laid with a track cut with piece of glass. In this sense they are becoming more like compositions.

The time it takes to record, sound on tracks plus what I was listening to at the time of making is scribed in the middle. Each Platter is framed in a shadow box. It addresses music collecting and also how the identity of this pursuit is changing with newer technologies and what these technologies make possible. I see the Plexiglas LPs as a low tech version of what is happening with computer programs like garage band were the tools to produce your own recordings are in everyone’s hands.

Rebalance. 2015. 4x3x3ft. wood, discarded plastic bags, rock.

A Collaboration with Sage Sidley and Ze Ke Kan.

Plastic Recycling Bin. Air. Light.

The Van. Out side in Banff, British Columbia Canada. 2006 – Life size VW van. 16x6x7ft. 4 sheets of birch plywood. Taking inspiration from The Van by Fred Douglas. This piece hovers between sculpture drawing, performance, photography and relates in some ways to the Robert Smithson idea of site - non-site. It was taken around Banff and photographed. The images are shown with the Van. Because it is a framework, the space behind appears as the surface of the vehicle, as a skin collapsing and expanding space; reorganizing space. I also think about it as a thought object. If you think about something in the right way you can make it appear physically. It’s an absence of presence or a presence of absence.

Gravity. 2008.10x5x3ft. 5 CD stereo units, 5 oak shelves, varnish, paint, Vinyl letters, electrical cords, power station, water.

Each speaker in each stereo is playing a recording of a different piece of a waterfall. When the sound is played back the illusion of the waterfall is produced. The effect changes with the Viewer’s relative position to the work. The Original sound was recorded at the power station that supplies the electricity that runs the work.

Prelude to Gravity. 2008 - 18x8x4ft. Wood, drywall, wallpaper, digital birds, light sensors.

An 18 x8x2ft wall is set 2ft away from the wall of the gallery creating a narrow passage.

The inside of this passage is wallpapered and painted green. Placed 7.5 ft above your head are small shelves. Each shelf has a small plastic bird that has a digital voice that sings when triggered. This happens through the use of light sensors that are placed on the opposite side of the wall in the exhibition space. When the sound is triggered it creates changing ambient sound-scape.

Juniper Ridge. 2008. 5x4x1ft. Coyote hide, air pumps, Plexiglas. Over a period of about a minute the coyote inflates and deflates, transforming the hide from material (reality) to a living animal (illusion). There is a second pump that creates the illusion of the coyote breathing. This piece is part of an ongoing body of research. I see these works as a natural progression from taxidermy. The next step is to make the animal breath and the next step after this would be to leave the animals alone and let them live in their natural environment. Taxidermy and echo tourism being the pursuit of the same thing, a longing to get close to animals.

Tracks. 2008. 12x12inches. Plexiglass. . Tracks is a series of what I’m referring to as Conceptual LPs or sound recordings. They consist of plexi glass squares 12x12 inches of varying colours. Each piece is put on a specially made turntable and the sound is cut in using various tools such as nails or sandpaper. As the series progresses the albums are becoming more complex by adding one cut over another. For example one cut of rough sandpaper over laid with a track cut with piece of glass. In this sense they are becoming more like compositions.

The time it takes to record, sound on tracks plus what I was listening to at the time of making is scribed in the middle. Each Platter is framed in a shadow box. It addresses music collecting and also how the identity of this pursuit is changing with newer technologies and what these technologies make possible. I see the Plexiglas LPs as a low tech version of what is happening with computer programs like garage band were the tools to produce your own recordings are in everyone’s hands.

Jericho. 1x1x1ft. Fabric, FM transmitter and receiver.2 small handmade tents pegged to the wall.

Each incorporates the sound of a radio tuned to a local station plus the sound of shouting.

Bridge - 6x6x3ft. Fiberglass, steel, Vinyl, Sound.
The headphones play the sound recording of a river flowing through them. It gives the viewer the sensation of being suspended by the neck. By placing it in a corner it makes that corner shrink visually, similar to the Ames room.

Track 7.- 3x2x2ft. Ceramic, flock, sound.

The sound element is of a real dog barking. As the viewer enters the space they are unable to see the work but can hear it. An illusion is built, which collapses when the work becomes visible. As the viewer leaves the space the illusion is rebuilt and may keep recurring every time they hear a dog bark.

6x1x10ft.  Resin, steel. A life cast of my arm cast in resin.

This is a piece I made to greet viewers if I didn’t want to be there. A little like a telephone answering machine.

Paper Car Crash. 20x20x10 inches. Paper, Plexiglas. A series of paper cars downloaded from the internet were printed and built. They were then crashed.

Waterfall.

Walkman, Tape, Sound of waterfall, Speakers, Vibrating air.

6x1x10ft.  Resin, steel. A life cast of my arm cast in resin.

This is a piece I made to greet viewers if I didn’t want to be there. A little like a telephone answering machine.

Resin, Cardboard.

Cave built for the movie Summer of the Monkey.

OSB,Carpet, Lights.