As one of the few animators to successfully cross over into the lucrative world of fine art, Takeshi Murata (b. 1974) has produced a wide range of video works that range from hand-drawn, computer-assisted animation to randomly distorted clips from films and TV shows a la glitch art, such as “Untitled (Pink Dot)” (2007), drawn from Rambo, or “Timewarp Experiment” (2007) from Three’s Company. His animated work “Melter 2” (2003) was shown on the facade of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from late January through April of this year:
In all his work, change and distortion are key elements. Murata’s latest work, “Melter 3-D” (2014) is no different in that approach. “Melter 3-D,” which debuted last month at the Frieze art fair in New York, is a sculpture, but one that suggests constant motion. Using the idea of the zoetrope, which produces the illusion of motion through rapidly successive still images—a forerunner of the motion picture—Murata has made a sculpture that appears to melt. Using precisely positioned strobe lights, the spinning globe seems to flow and dwindle in an effect remarkably like the liquid metal effects pioneered in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), except that it is happening right in front of you. The strobe effect can be hard to watch for long periods, but it doesn’t take long to view the entire scope of the work. Murata’s San Francisco gallery Ratio 3 presented the work at Frieze.
