Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/749295
182 culturedmag.com PHOTO BY MONICA TREMONTO How did you get started working on this major wall installation for your show at Patrick Parrish gallery? I had not done anything like this—taking on such a large surface area—in a long time. I have been working on these floating landscapes that I was creating from intricate circuits. After someone commented how beautiful they were, I thought about the idea of the circuit being the decoration. I love the linear quality you create using copper. Where did the copper come from? About five years ago I was doing a project for Tod's creating these unique bags that had light on them, which led to this thing with copper. The wall to me is like painting, just using copper. The light element is this other fascination I have. The wall looks like a futuristic map of a city. The idea of architecture and cities goes through everything I'm doing, including the theme for this show. There's also a strong reference from my childhood, a visual from the old Bell Labs. There was a commercial that had this interactive wall with a little TV screen on it, and on that screen, you saw a kid drink some cleaning fluid. After he drank it, this huge map suddenly appeared, and then his mother got on the phone and these dots of light connected with a doctor's office. As a kid this was just fascinating to me. So here I am making this thing and I wondered if I could use that Bell Labs concept of the future as a template. Could I make some imagery that all of a sudden pops out into real life? So this copper map will be on the first floor at Patrick Parrish. What else will be happening? Yeah, the first floor is mixture of things. You will see the translation between the wall and the objects that are in the environment. It's almost like creating a 2D manifesto of what is in front of you. And the lower level? The lower level is Patrick's life and that's the beauty of the show and why we're doing this together. It's a mutual respect we have for each other. That's still the other part of his life as a gallerist, the historical stuff. Which is why people see the totality in his thinking and how rare it is. This is a person with an encyclopedic brain. He has that part of the gallery with the historic stock, and we thought it would be great to add things that I've never shown or things that have not been seen in the U.S., so it felt connected. LET THERE BE LIGHT As lighting artist Marcus Tremonto stages a takeover of Patrick Parrish's gallery, designer Doug Meyer gets a preview of the expansive new work. Tremonto with Untitled, 2016. His show at Patrick Parrish is on view December 8-23. "The wall to me is like painting, just using copper. The light element is another fascination." —Marcus Tremonto