The LED light installation MATRIX X for Art Chicago 2003 at the Chicago Navy Piers is the latest work of Erwin Redl’s MATRIX series. Each version in this series consists of a different, large-scale manifestation of the archetypical grid structure. The pure light emitted by tiny electronic LED components used in those pieces becomes the perfect medium to transfer the mental space of abstraction into sensual architectural installations.

MATRIX X uses three grids of LEDs, each of them employing 9,000 red lights in 200 foot long and 35 foot high curtains of LEDs hanging from the dark, vaulted ceiling of the Chicago Navy Piers. These three light curtains with a total of 27,000 LEDs are positioned in the three perpendicular cross-sections of the large exhibition hall. Embedded in the structure of this enormous architectural volume the installation focuses and redistributes the inherent spatial energy of the exhibition hall. The spatial integrity fragmented by numerous temporary gallery walls is held together by the installation’s light curtains floating in the empty space between ceiling and gallery area.

Erwin Redl’s large-scale light installations are shown extensively in North America, Europe and Asia. His most recent works of the MATRIX series have been presented at the 2002 Whitney Biennial covering the façade of the Whitney Museum in New York, at Calvin Klein in a commission for his Madison Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, and at the Brooklyn Anchorage in an exhibition produced by Creative Time. The artist holds an MFA in Computer Art from School of Visual Arts, New York and a BA in Composition and Electronic Music from the Music Academy, Vienna, Austria. He has lived and worked in New York since 1993.

MATRIX X will take place at Chicago Navy Piers. It will open on Friday May 9th and will run through May 12th. For more detailed information about Art Chicago 2003 visit www.artchicago.com

For more information about Erwin Redl, visit www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/2001/Anchorage01/anchorage/redl.htm