It’s rare that one can touch art. But here in the series of ephemeral art, Angie Eng creates work that can be reconfigured by visitors. In Magnetizing Mandala, electronic waste rather than colored sands is arranged in patterns to contemplate our participation in digital consumption.  Traditionally, these mathematical circular forms were revelations to define and guide us to a higher plane beyond materialism and toward accepting impermanence. Yet, in the electronic age coupled with over-consumption, we are left with permanent traces of our adverse habits.  Her mandalas cannot be blown away like the sand mandalas of Tibetan monks. Rather, the visitor can change the mandala patterns by rearranging its magnetic fragments while contemplating their physical impact of construction and destruction of the art and on the world.

After the artist spent hours arranging the mandala, a visitor came with her toddler and proceeded to take all the pieces off the board and throw them onto the floor. The cyclical process of creation and destruction was immediate and a reminder that life must be appreciated in the moment rather than cherished as a permanent object. A group of dance students approached it and began to immediately rebuild it.

This project was part of the Touch exhibit whereby visitors could touch all artworks. It followed a series of workshops where families could bring recycled object to create their own mandala.

Special Thanks:

These two aforementioned projects was made possible with the sponsorship from Green Girl Recycling, Sparkfun Electronics and assistance of the BTU lab, Atlas CU Boulder. Special thanks to Noah Anast, Bridget Johnson, Jessica Koolman Parker, Leo Latousek, Frank Lucero.