Modes of Conduction
Overnight Projects presents Modes of Conduction an exhibition of Germany-based artists Vesko Goesel, Peter Miller, and Viktoria Strecker who created site-specific, installation-based works in the abandoned Moran Plant on Burlington, Vermont's waterfront.
The Moran Plant functioned as a generator of energy. A machine whose massive turbine generators and switch gear assemblies were activated by workers-like-conductors to set off a daily assemblage of sounds. The machine, a monstrous skeleton of steel wrapped in skin of cinder block, emitted a cacophony of industry: harmony, rhythm, and melody, the chorus of grinding gears and humming motors. Each day, workers-like-spectators witnessed the light moving across Moran's vast interiors, changing its colors from blue to amber, signaling the end of the day, the end of the concert.
In this exhibition, Goesel, Miller, and Strecker reactivated the machine that was Moran, and conducted through material interventions, a series of sounds, sights, and phenomena: Goesel through large, reflective fabrics, Miller through works imbued with uncanny sensations, and Strecker with gooey sculptures, ghostly paintings, and automatic musical instruments and sounds created with rainwater collected in the building's inner troughs.