The Experimental Joseph O'Connell

Joseph O'Connell's interactive installations take us on a metaphysical journey through spatial and sensory awareness. With over 30 years of experimentation and dedication to breaking boundaries in his sculptural and large scale installation practice, he is a gifted artist and storyteller known for incorporating light, color and motion into his work. 

 

O'Connell has crafted in a wide range of materials and meta-materials, as well as masterfully captured a cornucopia of themes and audiences. Inspired by history, science and human communications, his work provides a grounding consciousness, that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. His non-hierarchical narratives include equality, collaboration, acceptance and community through celebration and remembrance. Many of his works offer experiences that capture the collective identity of a community while others allow for unique personal engagement, in an appreciation of individual viewpoints.

 

Moving between the duality of figuration and abstraction, O'Connell embraces art's purpose as the trapdoor that connects worlds we simultaneously inhabit. The coming together of our multiple worlds is visible from his first public commission, all the way to one of his latest installations 'Multiple Selves'.The earlier 'Desert O', is an interactive solar-powered piece, an O-shaped portal, constructed out of translucent white rings precisely bolted together, installed in Tucson, Arizona, 20 years ago. The inner structure is purposefully visible and illuminated at night by a string of LED lights that shines through the installation's semi-opaque 'skin'. The artist often incorporates a secret something into the materials; in this case, a hidden button manually runs the hand-coded sequences of lights, changing the sculpture's colours. Interaction with the piece gives us a visceral experience of an inner and outer shell at the same time. Separate identities, yet part of an all-encompassing one.

 

O'Connell's more recent work 'Multiple Selves', conveys the same message in an elevated form of interaction. The inner structure is now the person, who must enter into the artwork. Clear glass spheres of varying sizes have been fused together in a form that resembles a diving helmet, suspended from the ceiling. The heavy sculpture has an ethereal weightless quality about it, floating like a mask out of soap bubbles, that completely covers one's head and neck when 'worn'. On the surface, the glass spheres reflect into each other ad infinitum, sparkling as we move around the piece.

 

Entering the installation and looking out through the glass, is an experience of redefining our body in space. A small upside-down image of the surroundings is refracted in each of the spheres, creating a kaleidoscope. Our minds try to put it together, before realizing it's all the same picture. The fractal visual distortion allows the flow of perception to accept the oneness we feel as being a result of many individual moments. From the outside, our singular self is also 'divided', appearing upside-down on the surface of each sphere. The inspiration for this work was bridging the many identities we hold dear on the inside, with the multiple roles we take on in the community. From the subatomic, cell-dividing perspective to the celestial realm of pure knowledge, the insights we derive from O'Connells works is an aesthetic anthropology of what unites us, in an expanding cosmos of emotional wonder.

 

An installation artist contends with shaping space, which O'Connell takes as a challenge and a privilege. This has established him as a force in site-specific public works, that interact with the social fabric of a community. Beyond the highly-controlled museum or gallery settings, his installations are framed by the larger forces we encounter in the natural world, such as light, sound and motion. His unique approach to elevating pure forms of collective experiences into monuments is what sets him apart. 

 

The concept of counting time and memory is intricately woven into the realization of his outdoor work. Whether in his accurate solar and stellar Observatory, his seasonal sun-dial Chromanova or his commemoration of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a collaboration with Anneliese Bruner to be installed soon. When a community adopts one of his installations as their own, its influence reverberates further than the artist's intention, transforming the air around it and the outdoors into an infinite museum. This immersion creates dialogue and a collective experience, which changes the interaction with the work over time and assigns it a rich collective identity.

 

The sheer scale of some of his outdoor installations immediately incorporates us into their influence. To approach or interact with the work is always new, since their designed but free reaction to natural forces, gives the impression of life. Whether you go as a group or by yourself, you are always accompanied by a sense of awe. Reminiscent of Alexander Calder's elegant yet bold mobiles, O'Connell created Broomcorn, a kinetic sculpture powered by wind currents. Twelve stalks of multi-colored glass spheres set in delicate stainless steel, hypnotically balance in an ascending arc inside Brookfield's community center, Colorado. As the light bounces off the work it influences a bigger area, creating new dynamic color landscapes and immersive environment imagery without projection mapping, just material science. This way, it holds up well over a long time.

 

A public space is ungoverned by the intention of visiting a work of art, but rather by stumbling upon it, and reinventing it with new discoveries on each occasion. Some of O'Connell's installations, like the award-wining 2021 Chasing the Stars, need pulling, pushing or some other physical motion to interact with, which creates a more memorable experience since it is registered both by the mind and the body. At Google's campus in Boston, we can encounter the installation, Find Joy. Disjointed sets of pipes climb and snake over the site, that secretly have a specific vantage point one must reach to read the message. When in alignment, they spell out Joy and two concentric hearts.

 

Additionally to light and motion with tools such as gesture sensors, programmed algorithms and video manipulation, O'Connell goes beyond the eyes and combines sound with art. Without computational or electronic means, he designs work that emits subsonic vibrations, binaural frequencies and healing tones. Central to his focus is the effect on the area around the installations, including the viewer who through their interaction becomes part of the sculpture, sharing the same space for a moment. In this way he is dedicated to creating work that enhances positive experiences for children. 

 

Endlessly experimental in new techniques, like monumental 3d printing, O'Connell contends that we don't take play seriously enough, stating "Play is when we open ourselves up and meaning can come in". He uses steel, bronze, glass, dichroic acrylic, light, sound, air and space in a long list of materials that make up his practice. By choosing diffused light patterns and color mixing, he moves us away from the tech feeling and connects us anew to the natural world. The simple conscious act of appreciating the present moment is emphasized by the connecting trapdoors he creates between our worlds. Being individuals who are also part of a central core, a universal timeless identity.

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Edited by Alexandra Kadinopoulou