This fall, the Esplanade presents Mostly Harmless, a 3000-square-foot immersive installation by internationally exhibiting artist Robyn Moody. It comprises handmade machines working in tandem with instruments to generate expressions of sound and light. Gears, pails, electric keyboards, water, and radios are all components of the multifaceted devices. Robyn’s intentions may initially be perceived as bewildering or disorienting, and his works are almost certainly unlike anything you’ve experienced before. With time and an open mind, themes of patterns and chaos, madness and angst, beauty and fragility, emerge.

The title Mostly Harmless, thoughtfully chosen by the artist, is rooted in Robyn’s personal connection to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a series of books by Douglas Adams. He explains, “In The Hitchhiker’s Guide, the brief entry describing Earth was revised from ‘harmless’ to ‘mostly harmless.’ It’s a fair description. Most of humanity wants only to have peace, to do no harm, and to enjoy their brief moment of existence.” His connection to the phrase is embedded in his awareness of and concern for the state of civilization.

“To our south,” he says, “we have a powerful crumbling empire lashing out unpredictably and threatening our sovereignty. In the Middle East, a powerful occupier is committing genocide with impunity, while our leaders and news outlets prevaricate. Russia continues its doomed invasion of Ukraine, and the ultra-wealthy now seem to be in some sort of senseless competition to see who can hoard the most. Here in Alberta, we see a government and their merry band of separatists licking their lips in anticipation of joining these crusades of greed, chaos, cruelty, and division.” Mostly Harmless entices us to walk the line of complex dualities: understanding and fear, worry and peace, knowledge and ignorance. It invites us to immerse ourselves in personal negotiation.

Sound, a dominant component of Robyn’s practice, emerges as a medium of metaphor. The compositions generated by pieces such as Enigma, a device that never repeats itself, are a lesson in brevity. Chains of gears produce music on an organ and electric keyboard, and the gear position is ever-changing; within the random composition created, patterns appear and then dissolve. A fleeting existence.

Robyn’s approach to “making” is a continuum of meditation—not an escape from reality but a cathartic approach to processing it. Mostly Harmless is an experience of mindfulness, an opportunity to slow down, listen, and embrace a path of the perplexing unknown. It may take you to exactly where you need to be.

Artist Bio

Robyn Moody (b. 1975, Lethbridge, Canada) lives and works in Calgary, Canada and received his MFA from NSCAD University in 2006. He takes a whimsical and multifaceted approach to art making, lately focused on electronics, mechanics, installation, sound, mechanics and sculpture.

Often humorous, often strikingly beautiful, and often hiding a dark secret, Moody’s work explores (in whole or in part) the complex relationships between technological advances, human belief and interpretations of the world, and humanity’s relationship with science, politics, and nature.

He has shown his work regularly across Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia and Europe. Notable recent examples include Fondation Vasarely (Aix-en-Provence), Transitio festival (Mexico City), Kling and Bang (Reykjavik), Lydgalleriet (Bergen), AND festival (Liverpool), the 2013 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art (Edmonton), the Confederation Centre for the Arts (Charlottetown), The International Digital Arts Biennial (BIAN) at the Centre PHI and Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal (Montréal), Le Lieu Unique (Nantes, FR), Transmediale (Berlin, DE), Lighting Guerrilla (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Scopitone festival (Nantes), Werkleitz festival (Halle, DE), and the Némo Biennial Internationale des Arts Numériques (Paris, FR).

He has twice been nominated for the Sobey Art Award; in 2010 and 2012.

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View public reception details - HERE