Alejandro Borsani ❮
contact / bio
90° South

Sodium polyacrylate, water, spotlight, custom electronics, water hoses, water pumps
Dimensions: 4ft diameter x 1.5ft high. Minimum room space for full installation 20ft x 20ft
2010


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90° South is an installation that recreates the experience of a constantly changing environment with an unpredictable emergent topography. The contemplative and immersive nature of the installation allows the viewer to witness the constant evolution of a growing landscape.
Like some proto-cinematic technologies, such as the Panorama and the Magic Lantern, 90° South blends together both machine and nature. The immersive architectural space and the framing miniature effect of the growing landscape become an opportunity for an intimate contact with a fabricated nature. And so, the millennial temporality of different geological processes is transformed into a perceptible scale allowing the experience of a phenomenon beyond reach.

The work utilizes an irrigation system in conjunction with a highly absorbent material (sodium polyacrylate) that changes its shape and structure when in contact with water. A thin layer of polycrylate is placed on a rounded surface. When water reaches the surface, the sodium polyacrylate expands 300 times, changing its shape and producing subtle undulations. The silhouettes of these miniature mountains and hills are casted by a light attached to a rotating mechanism and projected on the walls of the gallery. As time passes and the material continues to expand, the profile of the landscape becomes more prominent giving the illusion of a vast terrain.

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90° Sur es una instalación que recrea un paisaje en constante cambio cuya topografía es impredecible. Utilizando estrategias similares a mecanismos pre-cinematográficos como el Panorama y la Linterna Mágica, 90° Sur mezcla la máquina y la naturaleza sugiriendo la ilusión de un horizonte fabricado. La temporalidad milenaria comprendida en los procesos geológicos es transformada en un fenómeno perceptible de escala humana.
La instalación utiliza un sistema de irrigación en conjunto con un material (Poliacrilato de sodio) que cambia su forma y estructura en contacto con el agua. Cuando el agua alcanza al material, éste se expande 300 veces generando ondulaciones irregulares. Las siluetas de estas ondulaciones son amplificadas como grandes sombras gracias a una luz que rota continuamente.