GETTING SOMEWHERE
GETTING SOMEWHERE is a kit designed as a meditative exercise to be completed after visiting Sam Friedman’s solo exhibition at Harper’s Chelsea. Friedman’s work is abstract, colorful, and ethereal. The kit contains a workbook with information on the artist, questions focusing on understanding the exhibit, an activity to understand our own associations with colors and forms, and a pixel sliding puzzle activity for users to create their own image based on the artist's painting and their process.
Skills Used: Graphic Design, Color Theory, Iterative Design Process, Photoshop, Keyshot, Solidworks
The Artist: Sam Friedman
Sam Friedman (b. 1984, Oneonta, NY) received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 2006. Most recently, his work has been the subject of solo presentations in Korea, NY, MI, Greece, and China. Friedman is represented by Library Street Collective; he currently lives and works in Pleasant Valley, NY. Friedman worked for KAWS for 5-6 years before venturing into his own practice in upstate NY.
Friedman’s practice embodies the way our daily engagement with screens has increasingly shaped visual perception. Mimicking how compressed digital images and videos render large swaths of color, his surfaces consist of multiplying curvilinear bands of chroma that subtly shift in hue.
‘Getting Somewhere’ by Sam Friedman on display at Harper’s Chelsea, November 2021
Untitled, 2021
Untitled, 2021
Untitled, 2021
Untitled, 2021
Untitled, 2021
The kit consists of three items: a reflective workbook, sliding pixel puzzle, and color flashcards to go along with the exercises in the workbook.
Untitled, 2021
The painting (Untitled, 2021) next to the sliding pixel puzzle that it was inspired by. The puzzle was designed and made out of transparent acrylic to channel the aspects of Friedman’s work that focuses on human’s constant engagement with screens and digitized images, while incorporating the ethereal feel to his work. Pixels are said (by some) to be the most minute part of a digital image. The sliding puzzle in this kit incorporates that by taking Friedman's artwork and pixelating it. The user is then able to slide the pixels around to create their own image giving them the opportunity to take time away from their screens and interact with pixels in a new way.
