". . . meet the Tetracono"
Picture Room in welcomes David Reinfurt, who will present research from his six month residency at the American Academy in Rome.
“The art of the past has accustomed us to seeing nature as static: a sunset, a face, an apple, all static. People go to nature looking for images such as these static things, whereas an apple is in fact a moment in the process from apple-seed to tree, blossom, fruit.” Bruno Munari (Design as Art, 1966)
In 1965, Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari released the Tetracono with an event and exhibition at the Danese Milano showroom, inviting spectators to ". . . meet the Tetracono" as if it was a person. Instead, Tetracono is a product, an austere 15-cm black steel cube housing four aluminum cones, each painted half-red and half-green, designed to spin at four distinct speeds on an 18-minute cycle. Its function is to “show forms while they are in the process of becoming.” Taking the form of a product launch or software demo, David Reinfurt will informally present his work from the last six months at the American Academy in Rome reanimating this strange product-artwork, and will reflect upon the Tetracono as a model for thinking though larger questions surrounding design, art, and the fertile grey areas in between.
Accompanying this presentation is the image of the Tetracono, a four colour silk screen print edition, produced in Rome. “Stampa Programmata”, or programmed printing, is a composite of four different moments in the 18-minute cycle of the Tetracono, as the individual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black plates.
David Reinfurt is 1/2 of Dexter Sinister, 1/4 of The Serving Library, and 1/1 of O-R-G inc. Dexter Sinister started as a small workshop on the lower east side of Manhattan and has since branched pragmatically into projects with and for contemporary art institutions. The Serving Library publishes a semi-annual journal, maintains a physical collection, and circulates PDF texts through its website. O-R-G is a small software company. David currently teaches at Princeton University and his work is included in the permanent collections of Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. David is the 2016-2017 Mark Hampton Rome Prize fellow.
Sep 29th 2017