Mark Malmberg’s robotic mobiles, most of which are solar-powered, twist, chirp, whirl, and whistle. Just add a little sunlight and witness the fascinating signs of something that approximates life. This life emerges not out of muck and slime but out of a contemporary profusion of silicon, circuits, and machinery. The mobiles make for a compelling mix of the high-tech and the handcrafted, and they raise timely questions about relationships between machines and biological life, noise and music, the mass-produced and the handmade. Malmberg refers to his sculptures as “creatures,” and he sees them as representations of life, complete with the appearance of sentience. They perform and improvise, and they demand and reward prolonged attention.. …see the entire article in the print version of November’s Sculpture magazine.
