This fall, the Esplanade presents Mostly Harmless, a 3,000-square-foot immersive installation by internationally exhibiting artist Robyn Moody. Handmade machines work alongside instruments to generate expressions of sound and light. Gears, pails, electric keyboards, water and radios come together in multifaceted devices that may initially feel bewildering or disorienting. With time and an open mind, themes of patterns and chaos, madness and angst, beauty and fragility begin to emerge.
The title Mostly Harmless is rooted in Moody’s personal connection to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He explains, “In The Hitchhiker’s Guide, the brief entry describing Earth was revised from ‘harmless’ to ‘mostly harmless.’ It’s a fair description. Most of humanity wants only to have peace, to do no harm, and to enjoy their brief moment of existence.”
For Moody, the phrase also reflects his awareness of the uncertainty, conflict and division shaping the world today. Mostly Harmless invites us to walk the line between complex dualities: understanding and fear, worry and peace, knowledge and ignorance, encouraging each visitor to engage in their own personal negotiation.
Sound is a dominant component of Moody’s practice and becomes a medium for metaphor. In works such as Enigma, a device that never repeats itself, chains of gears produce music on an organ and electric keyboard. As the gears continually change position, patterns appear within the random compositions and then disappear—a reflection on the fleeting nature of existence.
Moody’s approach to making is a continuum of meditation—not an escape from reality, but a cathartic way of processing it. Mostly Harmless is an experience of mindfulness and an opportunity to slow down, listen and embrace the perplexing unknown. It may take you exactly where you need to be.
Robyn Moody (b. 1975, Lethbridge, Canada) lives and works in Calgary and received his MFA from NSCAD University in 2006. His multifaceted practice incorporates electronics, mechanics, installation, sound and sculpture.
Often humorous, strikingly beautiful and sometimes hiding a darker side, Moody’s work explores relationships between technological advances, human belief, science, politics and nature.
His work has been exhibited across Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia and Europe, including Fondation Vasarely, Transitio festival, Kling and Bang, the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, Confederation Centre for the Arts, Centre PHI, Transmediale and the Némo Biennial Internationale des Arts Numériques. He was nominated for the Sobey Art Award in 2010 and 2012.
