Volume Gallery is pleased to announce Ultralight by Sam Stewart, opening Friday, January 10th, 2020, from 5-8PM at 1709 W Chicago Ave, IL 60622. In his first solo exhibition at Volume Gallery, Sam Stewart presents a collection of “ultralight” fixtures that use the camping tent as an opportunity to consider materiality, tension, and illumination.
The familiar warmth of colorful fabric is offset by a tension between the object and its implied function. The ultralights lure the viewer to things that might cause anxiety or raise alarm, to objects we associate with moments of distress—both real and imagined—and to the visual sirens of everyday life: naked light bulbs, life rafts, spacecrafts, telephone receivers, a pair of lungs, and airplane windows.
Similar to the modern camping tent, each ultralight can be easily assembled and disassembled, fitting into a small travel bag due to its component parts: collapsible fiberglass rods and ripstop nylon fabric. The resultant tension created between the rod and fabric produces a three-dimensional form. Insert a light source, and the architecture produced by this tension becomes an illuminated campsite—a glowing inflatable dome.
Upending expectations the functionality of common objects, ultralights disrupt our perceptions and routines.
Ultralight will be on view from January 10th – February 22nd, 2020.
