Stratagems

Tara Donovan’s practice is defined by a rigorous engagement with systems of accumulation and transformation. Working with ubiquitous, mass-produced materials—plastic cups, rubber bands, paper plates, and other everyday objects—she subjects them to processes of repetition and aggregation that fundamentally alter our perception of them.

In her most recent body of work, Stratagems, Donovan extends this investigation into a direct dialogue with architecture and the built environment. Constructed entirely from many thousands of recycled CDs, these vertically oriented sculptures function as responsive surfaces, registering subtle shifts in light, atmosphere, and perspective.

As daylight changes and weather patterns move across the city, the works continually visually reconfigure our perception of them. Installed within the glass Annex gallery at Transamerica Pyramid Center, Stratagems enters into an especially resonant exchange with its surroundings. The sculptures mirror the vertical ambition and reflective skin of the skyscraper itself, transforming the gallery into a site where material, architecture, and urban scale converge.

"My most recent sculpture series titled Stratagems are deeply connected to skyscraper architecture, both in their immediate verticality and their surface appearance. When ICA SF invited me to be part of their evolution across the city, I could not imagine a more perfect site to bring these works than the soaring Transamerica Pyramid Center. I am always fixated on the ways that sculptures transform space and experience, and in this context, an intention of these sculptures to engage the understanding of urban architecture can be fully realized. The power of ICA SF’s new model is in the ability to situate objects like this in new contexts that can transform our understanding of space and art. I am so thrilled to be a part of this intervention into the city." — Tara Donovan