looking outwards-08

Kawandeep Virdee

Kawandeep Virdee is the co-founder of New American Public Art, an organization that strives to create interactive art, “art that sees you,” in public spaces, so there’s never a paywall for the artwork. He places meaning-making and joy, especially that which is created in community or with other people, at the forefront of his practice. He does this not only by making his interactive art pieces customizable to the audience but also by being aware of the site or public setting which allows conversation to be made between audience members because, as he says in the video, you can always create more meaning with others than with oneself. I really admire his ability to do this through complete customizability, like in PDX I Love You where people create heart cutouts of anything (photos, maps, graphics, etc.) they like on Valentine’s day, because it allows an entire range and freedom within that range of meaning-making depending on whatever the audience member wants. His accountability of both accessibility and customizability perfectly accomplishes his goal as it creates genuine meaning-making in the face of certain obstacles, like the consumerism and societal expectations that usually engulf valentine’s day is countered by PDX I Love You’s way of creating meaning. The cool thing is that his work really ranges in the type of interaction as PDX was about sharing and love but he has spherical sculptures about the interaction of movement that’s simply fun for kids to play with and data-collecting visualizations of some kind of input that the audience can execute in real-time. He succeeds in the community effect he attempts to achieve by displaying his work in large public settings or a server that is being updated live so people can see their inputs simultaneously manifest with others. I thoroughly admire his placing of visual execution fully on the audience because it promotes artistic diversity, freedom, community, and spontaneity, which are some of the paramount reasons I am an artist myself. Thus, I see those aspects of presentation as very educational to my practice.

https://whichlight.com/