EXHIBITION WILL RUN FROM SEPTEMBER 29TH TO DECEMBER 11TH, 2011, WITH A RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST FROM 5:30 to 7:30 ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH

Does the term kinetic sculpture fill your mind with images of clanking metal gears or corny water-driven fountain elements? Chico MacMurtrie is here to offer a different vision. Although he has made his share of drum-pounding giant robots over the years, Birds is a lyrical, even meditative exploration of the flapping of wings. MacMurtrie, who lived in Northern California for many years until relocating to New York a decade ago, is part of the generation of San Francisco artists, like Mark Pauline of Survival Research Laboratories, and others, who were seduced by the excitement of power-driven machine sculpture in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Birds on the other hand unfolds in a theatrically lit, almost mystical silence as the sets of large white fabric wings, driven by compressed air, slowly inflate, flap, and deflate over a period of minutes.

"Nary a sensor, wire, or actuating mechanism to be seen here, and one can easily imagine they've entered some primordial creationist's workshop when they enter the gallery to see the creatures expand, move, breath and react to those who come to watch them," wrote Todd Jatras, for Wired magazine, of an earlier MacMurtrie exhibition in New York.

For further images and information, please contact Katrina Wong at kliwong@ucdavis.edu.