Los Angeles-based artist Megan Geckler has mesmerized us with her radiant, site-specific tape installations time and time again and her most recent work, titled Rewritten by Machine on New Technology, is no exception. For this piece, the skilled artist uses 720 strands of flagging tape (non-adhesive plastic ribbon) in five colors (red, orange, yellow, green, white), though the spectrum of red to yellow visually dominates the appearance of the installation from the outside.
Like a whirling inferno, Geckler’s brilliantly arranged presentation has a fiery glow that gives off the illusion of flickering flames. With 36 ribbons of tape extending from each side of the four-sided panel, they all converge and diverge with each other to create a visual dance. The colors even blend into one another, the whites and greens getting lost in the illusionary flames, heightening the perception of motion. Coupled with the repetitive and sequential distribution of Geckler’s impeccable color palette, it’s as though a fiery tornado is sitting in the middle of a room.
