James Hartunian
TIMBER!
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? TIMBER! is an exploration of perception, existence, and the liminal space where technology and nature meet.
- January 2 - 30, 2025
- Opening: Thursday, January 2, 6:00 — 8:00pm
James Hartunian investigates the human experience by blurring the boundary between reality and abstraction and offering a glimpse into a speculative world. TIMBER! is not a real forest in Washington state or anywhere else, but a recreation of such through robotic forms.
Albert Einstein once asked physicist Abraham Pais, “Do you really believe the moon only exists if you look at it?” Hartunian invites us to reconsider the very fabric of reality. Just as the moon is a celestial body whose “moon-ness” is subjective to the observer, so too is the forest shaped by the eyes that look upon it. For some creatures, the forest is a habitat, for others, it’s a mythic landscape, and for the machines at the center of TIMBER!, it’s a disembodied series of signals, patterns, and data.
TIMBER! reimagines nature through the lens of technology. Crafted with cyborgian machines, Hartunian stages an ambiguous setting, where the glow of man-made fireflies is powered by a synthetic light rather than the chemical reaction of luciferin in their abdomens. The “insects” cast eerie shadows as they whirl, driven by motors instead of wings. Meanwhile, a grassland grows beneath engineered suns, and a tree falls again and again, its impact never realized, a thud suspended in eternal anticipation. In this uncanny world, we may confront the paradox of perception: If no one is there to witness it, does this forest—strange and synthetic—still make a sound?
About the Artist
James Hartunian is a queer interdisciplinary artist based in Seattle, WA. He constructs electronic environments and objects to stimulate and simulate future worlds, bodies, and landscapes. He has exhibited domestically in Columbus and Findlay, OH, Chicago, Seattle, and internationally at Ars Electronica in Linzburg, Austria. He received a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio from the School of the Arts Institute Chicago, and an MFA from Ohio State University.