Reuben Margolin
PopTech 2009
What do you get when an artist weds classical training in lifedrawing with a lifelong love of physics—and the kind of eye that sees sine waves in an ordinary caterpillar’s crawl across the garden? Reuben Margolin’s extraordinarily complex kinetic sculptures suggest an answer.
Margolin established his studio in Emeryville, California, in 2004, and began making the large-scale undulating installations now being shown in art spaces in Oakland, San Francisco, Long Beach, New York, London, Mumbai, and Winterthur, Switzerland. He exploits the aesthetic possibilities inherent in simple pulleys and motors, and whenever possible, uses found and salvaged materials; his work “Hexagonal Wave” is constructed primarily from cardboard tubes and electrical wire.
Margolin also spends a fair amount of time off the grid, and can often be seen hauling supplies on his rickshaw. A 2007 collaboration with design studio Rebar resulted in the PARKcycle, a “human-powered open space distribution system”—in other words, a miniature city park on wheels.