Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar, 1, 2018. Plywood, fiber optic cable, LED light source, AGM batteries, wires, pure sine wave inverter, MPPT charge controller, solar panel, and steel brackets. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Kaspar
The title of the work is 1. This symbol is perceived as a numeric number but it is also seen as a unity. It is also a huge part of computer coding (which is based on 1's and 0's). So the title points to materials, technologies, and their connection to nature and the universe, which is my ongoing research as an artist. In the case of 1, I'm looking at technologies of communication via fiber optics, which as a medium can be used for transmitting light with great efficiency between the two ends of the cable but also for data communication, transmitted at the speed of light. So, on the one hand it's a communication device, but it's also light transmitted through this fiber at great speeds. The intersection of light and knowledge drives me immensely.

I discovered that I am interested in what I now know as "cognitive dissonance," which is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, that produce a feeling of discomfort, leading to an alteration in one's attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. For me, this is basically a moment where a new enigmatic behavior or feeling is introduced to an already-known fact or belief, and your brain tries to analyze and process it. 1, in some ways, is a guide to this condition. One sees what is beyond everyday materials—in my case a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood. The information embedded in the fiber optics creates a disruption in the everyday layer of the wood. The fiber optics enables the light to travel through the layers of the wood and hit the substrate, revealing a pattern of light. It reveals that there is always more to things than we see at first glance. It is the state where we process new, unknown properties and the behaviors of already-known materials, in this case plywood. And I hope it gets people to question more about materials and where they come from. The new rationality of the behavior of materials is then stored in one's mind and may be used for future interactions where it performs as a tool to better understand the universe :)
Some ideas that are not visible to the viewer are my choice of materials, and the fact that I track their origins and study the process of their manufacture. About a year ago, I worked for a company that organized a festival called Future of Storytelling. As part of the process I came across a project which was to reveal an indigenous community called Munduruku of the Amazonian river basin via Virtual Reality software. This work, commissioned by Greenpeace, an organization founded in 1971 that polices unethical environmental practices, used the presence and history of this community to create an immersive Virtual Reality experience. In order for me to make this environment, the company used many affordable materials such as plywood. Learning more about this particular material I found some information about the ongoing deforestation and threats to communities such as the Munduruku and their local environment—many of these raw materials are taken from regions such as the Amazon. Greenpeace projects are ethical, but I was still curious about these claims. What is going on here? I wanted to attempt to unpack it in my practice as an artist. Every layer of the plywood has embedded history, and with the fiber optics I was interested in the light source that effectively transmits the light onto the surface. Light for me represents knowledge and wisdom.
To me "volumes" means the connection of space and time. The inheritance of all elements in the present moment, each one dependent on another, creating a chain of reactions. It means the possibility of perception of the whole, while being aware of every part and its function. To me, volume also means the density, or amount of information that we have the capacity to abstract.
Peter Kaspar (b. 1983, Bratislava, Slovakia) earned a BA from University of St. Cyril and Methodius (Department of Mass Media Communication) in Trnava, Slovakia. He has exhibited his work internationally, including solo shows at Java Project, Brooklyn, NY (2018), and group shows at SVA Flatiron Project Space, New York, NY (2018); DOT Gallery, Slovakia (2018); The Boarder project, Brooklyn, NY(2018); John Doe Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2017); Department of Signs and Symbols, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Asia Contemporary, Hong Kong, (2014); and Bugok Culture and Art Center, Korea (2014). Kaspar has been an artist-in-residence with The Fountainhead (2016) and School of Visual Arts Residency (2015). Kaspar works in Astoria, Queens, where his family lived beginning in the late 1920's, before moving back to Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia).
Identity Live Mixing Skylight