CHICO MAC MURTRIE: BORDER CROSSERS
Project Description
Border Crossers comprise a series of lightweight robotic sculptures that poetically explore the notion of borders and boundary conditions. The inflatable sculptures rise to several stories high and extend across a given threshold. Their choreographed performance, originating on both sides of the border, would stage a symbolic connection.
Chico MacMurtrie and his interdisciplinary collective Amorphic Robot Works/ARW have received numerous awards for their experimental new media artworks, including five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, VIDA Life 11.0, and Prix Ars Electronica. Chico MacMurtrie was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts in 2016 and the Map Fund Grant in 2019.
Artist Statement
Border Crossers by Chico MacMurtrie
My Border Crossers inhabit a world that I am still dreaming about: a world of fluid boundaries between countries and cultures and between humans and machines.
I grew up in an Irish-Mexican household in Bisbee, Arizona, a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. I went to grade school in the border town of Naco, Arizona, directly across from Naco, Sonora, Mexico. My mother would take us to visit relatives in Mexico monthly, and many of my Mexican friends would come to school each day through a hole in the chain-link border fence.
Returning to this region each year as an adult, I still admire the stark beauty of the landscape, but I feel uncomfortable with the scar that has marred it in the form of a rusty metal barricade. I came to see the U.S.-Mexico border as a ‘theater of the real’, a realm shaped by representations as much as physical conditions and processes.
I have often contemplated how I might respond as an artist to this literal and metaphorical construction.
I came to see the U.S.-Mexico border as a ‘theater of the real,’ a realm shaped by representations as much as physical conditions and processes. Ten years ago, I conceived a series of inflatable performing machines that could scale the border wall without touching it and form a magnificent arch spanning the fence from each side.
I took road trips through the Southwest, visiting relatives and reflecting on my roots.
I decided the project should also have a strong community component, engaging people in the creative process, building on my extensive experience working with students and communities worldwide. Today, while images of fear and division misrepresent border communities, I feel that I am the right person in the right position with the necessary skills, experience, languages, and passion for realizing a meaningful work of art on the border—one that has the power to inspire.
The transformative, transgressive spirit of the Border Crossers can be seen in my previous projects. Long interested in metamorphosis and metaphor, I designed early performances around the transformation of my own body. I’ve worked with countless collaborators, including many students who have learned how to build and operate large-scale, lightweight inflatable robotic sculptures. Repurposing conventional technologies in unexpected ways, the “soft-machines” have performed in museums, galleries, and theaters on four continents, as well as a variety of outdoor spaces, taking on the scale of the landscape.
The relevance and visibility of national borders in the public imagination has never been higher than today, at least in my lifetime. Yet few people ever get a glimpse of the real borderland: the people, machines, and plant and animal life that populate it. My Border Crossers, at once strange and familiar machines that evoke human aspirations, serve as unconscious guides of this misunderstood landscape. They represent interactions between humans and machines on a level that differs radically from military hardware. Here, the art of robotics becomes peaceful, and the machine-bodies themselves soft and vulnerable, structured by that most ephemeral element: air.
Over the past five years, I have focused on bringing the Border Crossers to life—working with a supporting cast of arts and education institutions, students, and community members on both sides of the border. The documentary will reflect my conviction that all humans are equal and that border communities deserve respect. In highlighting a magical moment of connection, perhaps it can help change the narrative around border-related issues and shine a light on border communities and ecologies. Along the way, it will also raise questions about our relationship to technology, using machines as metaphors.
This project can powerfully highlight the multilingual border community and its overlooked cultural vitality.
- Chico MacMurtrie
Biography
Since the 1980s, Chico MacMurtrie has explored the intersection of art and technology.
He has won numerous awards and received critical acclaim for his robotic sculpture, installations, andperformances. Immersed in the Bay Area's Art and Technology Counterculture of the 1990s, he founded theinterdisciplinary collective Amorphic Robot Works, dedicated to the research and development of hisexperimental, anthropomorphic, computer-controlled sculptures, which evolved over the years into a "Society of Machines." Currently operating out of his studio in Brooklyn, New York, the artist's more recent work investigates the relationships between human motion and the machinic to create large-scale inflatable-robotic sculpture. MacMurtrie studio, a former Norwegian Seamen's Church, also known as the "Robotic Church", a permanent site-specific installation and public performance involving 50 percussive and musicalrobots.
MacMurtrie was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016 with his "Border Crossers" project, a unique public performance series along the US-Mexico border involving six inflatable robotic "Border Crossing" sculptures. The artist has worked with institutions in the US and abroad to create and encourageinterdisciplinary and international collaborations between students, makers, and universities as part of theBorder Crossers project.
MacMurtrie/ARW have received numerous awards for their experimental new media artworks, including five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, VIDA Life 11.0, and Prix Ars Electronica. Chico MacMurtrie was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts in 2016, the Mapfund Grant in 2019. In 2020 MacMurtrie was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.
MacMurtrie/ARW’s works have been presented in major museums and cultural institutions around the world including the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing; Hayward Gallery, London; Museo de la Reina Sofia, Madrid; Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo (MUAC), Mexico City; Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York; Shanghai Biennale; Tri Postal, Lille, (retrospectiveexhibition), Muffatwerk, Munich (Pneuma World); Ex-Dogana, Rome, the ZHI Art Museum, Chengdu, and the Queens Museum in New York.
CV
Chico MacMurtrie
1961 Born in Deming, NM
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Education
1980-1983 B.F.A., University of Arizona, Tucson
1983-1987 M.F.A., University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021 Border Crossers, Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas at El Paso
2018 Chico MacMurtrie, recent drawings from the Border Crossers series, Institute for the Humanities
Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Live Robotic Border Crossers performances, University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), Ann Arbor, MI
2017 Pneuma Fountain, Stift Kremsmuenster, in collaboration with Ars Electronica and OO Landesgartenschau, Austria
2016 Pneuma World, retrospective exhibition of Inflatable Soft-Machines,Muffathalle, Munich, Germany (September)
Border Crosser, temporary public art installation, commission by ZERO1, City Hall Plaza, San Jose, CA
2015 Biomorphic Wall / Border Crosser, Pioneer Works, Center for Art and Innovation, Brooklyn, NY
2013 – 2015 The Robotic Church, a site-specific installation and public performance series at the ARW studio in Brooklyn, NY
2013 Chrysalis, Pioneer Works, Center for Art and Innovation, Brooklyn, NY
Chrysalis, MOCA, Tucson, AZ
2012 Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada, Video Pool Media Arts Center, Winnipeg, Canada
Organograph: exhibition of the winning model of the Climate Clock International competition,
City Hall San Jose, CA
2011 Sixteen Birds, Inner Space, Biomorphic Wall, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irivine, CA
Sixteen Birds, Richard L. Nelson Gallery / UC Davis, CA
2010 Sixteen Birds, Project Space Muffatwerk, Munich, Germany
Inflatable Architectural Body Inner Space, National Gallery of Macedonia, Čifte Amam, curated
by Melentie Pandilovski, Skopje, Macedonia
2009 Sixteen Birds and Inflatable Architectural Body, Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2007 The Floating Tree: A Condominium for Birds, temporary public art installation, Anable Basin, East River, New York, NY
Inflatable Architectural Bodies, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Totemobile, commissioned by PSA Citro n, C42 showroom, Champs-Elys es, Paris, France
Sixteen Birds, MU Exhibition Space, Eindhoven, Holland
2006 Sixteen Birds, commissioned by the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF), Adelaide,
Australia
2005 Too Big Dog Monkey, Cave of the Subconscious and YoYo Berimbau
Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Forest of Totem Poles, The Columbus Museum of Art and Design, Columbus, IN
2004 The Amorphic Evolution, 1987-2004, (retrospective exhibition; cat) curated by Richard Castelli, TriPostal, Lille, European Cultural Capital 2004, FranceFetus to Man, public art, commissioned by the
City of Lille, European Cultural Capital, France
2003 Growing Raining Tree, three-year installation at The Center for Contemporary Art’s UN-Museum,
Cincinnati, OH
2001 The Seduction of the Bird Girl, Exit Art Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Urge to Stand, public art commission, Yerba Buena Center San Francisco, CA
1997 Growing into your Cultural Skin: The Cave of the Subconscious,
Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
1993 The Dog Monkey with the Zaccho Dance Theater, Theatre Artaud, San Francisco, CA
1992 Trigram: A Robotic Opera (with Bruce Darby), Theatre Artaud, San Francisco, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Were-:Nenetech Forms, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ
2019 Mundos Alternos, Art and Science Fiction in the Americas, Queens Museum, New York, NY
Useless: Machines for Dreaming, Thinking, and Seeing, curated by Gerardo Mosquera, Bronx
Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
2018 Open, curated by Zhang GA in collaboration with Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, ZHI Art
Museum Chengdu, China (cat.)
2017 Mundos Alternos, University of California Riverside (UCR), Riverside, CA as part of Pacific StandardTime LA/LA (September 2017 – March 2018) ; (cat.)
Creature Digitali, curated by Montxo Algora, Ex-Dogana, Rome (cat.)
The New Inflatable Moment, curated by Mary Hale and Katarzyna Balug, Boston Society of
Architects BSA, Boston, MA
2015 Nearly Human, curated by Jasia Reichardt, Laznia Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland ;(cat.)
2014 Thing World, New Media Arts Triennial, curated by Zhang GA, NAMOC, Beijing, China ; (cat.)
Alive / Eveil, curated by Sylvie Parent, Sesc Santana, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; (cat.)
Art Robotique, curated by Richard Castelli, Cite des Science et de l’Industrie, Paris, France ; (cat.)
2013 The Wizard’s Chamber, Kunsthalle Winthertur, Switzerland
Kinesthetics: Art Imitating Life, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY ; (cat.)
2012 Reactivation, 9th Shanghai Biennial, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China ; (cat.)
Art and Artificial Life: Vida 1999-2012, Espacio Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid, Spain ; (cat.)
2011 Transformer, Le 360, curated by Richard Castelli (cat.), Bethune Cultural Capital 2011, France
Todays Art Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2010 ZER01 Biennial, curated by Steve Dietz, San Jose , CA
Inflatable Architectural Growth, temporary public art installation, SF Fine Art Fair, San Francisco,
CA
2009 Inflatable Architectural Growth, temporary public art installation, commissioned by E-Arts Beyond,curated by ZHANG Ga, Pearl TV Tower Shanghai; (cat.)
Petit Mal, curated by Alejandra Labastida, MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporanea,
Mexico City, Mexico; (cat)
2008 Synthetic Times, New Media Triennial, NAMOC, Beijing; (cat.)
Machines and Souls, Museo de la Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; (cat.)
2007 Feedback, curated by Christiane Paul, Laboral, Gihon, Spain; (cat.)
2005 Ten New Horny Kids, temporary public art installation, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Los Angeles,CA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Elektrische Stadt Festival, Dresden, Germany
2003 Personal Space, Gigantic Art Space (GAS), New York, NY
Machine Visions, Harvestworks, New York, NY
ArtBots, Eyebeam Atelier, New York, NY
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
2002 N Donaufestival, Krems, Austria
Brooklyn Waterfront Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Digital Crossover, Muffathalle, Munich, Germany
Biennial Exhibition: The S-Files, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
2001 VIDA LIFE 4.0 Awards Exhibition, Fundaci n Telef nica, Madrid, Spain
Maribor Computer Arts Festival, Maribor, Slovenia
2000 Sonic Boom, curated by David Toop, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (cat.)
Skeletal Reflections, EXPO2000 World Fair, Hanover, Germany
The Ancestral Path through the Amorphic Landscape, Nottingham: NOW Festival, Co-commissioned
by NOW and Muffathalle Munich, Germany
1999 Klangart Festival, Osnabruck, Germany
KornHaus, Bern, Switzerland
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
1997 Bay Area Now: A Regional Survey of Contemporary Art, curated by Renny Pritiken, Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1997
Arte e Tecnologia, curated by Vitoria Daniela Bousso, Instituto Cultural Itau, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
Forum Telecom, Lisbon, Portugal (cat.)
V2 Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Museum of Innovation, San Jose, CA
The Bay Area Discovery Museum San Francisco, CA
1996 Art Futura, Madrid, Spain
Tacheles Theater, Berlin, Germany
Rearview Mirror to Reality Festival, Linz, Austria
Muffathalle, Munich, Germany
Sound Culture Festival, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
1994 Automata 1994, Mie, Japan
1993 ArtTec, Nagoya, Japan
Commissions
2017 Public Art Commission: Pneuma Fountain, Stift Kremsmuenster, Austria
2016 Public Art Commission: Border Crosser, City Hall Plaza, San Jose, CA
2014 Organic Arches, co-produced with SESC SP, Automatica and Molior. Presented at SESC in Sao
Paulo, Brazil.
2012 Public Art Competition: Organograph, a Climate Clock for the City of San Jose (in collaboration
with Geo Homsy and Bill Washabaugh).
2009 Inflatable Architectural Growth, commissioned by eArts Beyond International Exhibition, Shanghai
2007 Totemobile, commissioned by PSA Citro n, Paris
2005 Floating Tree, A Tree for Anable Basin, commission by A Place in History, presented in the East
River, Long Island City, NY
2003 Public Art Commission: Growing, Raining Tree, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
2002 Public Art Commission: Fetus to Man, Lille Cultural Capital 2004, France
1999 Public Art Commission: Urge to Stand, San Francisco, CA
Grants/Awards/Fellowships
2020 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship
2019 Mapfund Grant
2016 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts
2012 Climate Clock Initiative Award for Organograph, a proposed kinetic
public sculpture, by Geo Homsy, Chico MacMurtrie, Bill Washabaughfor the City of San Jose, CA
2010 CEC Artslink award for the ‘’Amorphic Robot Works in the Balkans’’ project
workshop and exhibition of Inflatable Architecture Inner Space,
Skopje, Macedonia
2009 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship (Digital/Electronic Arts)
2008 Third prize in Hybrid Art, VIDA Life 11.0, Art & Artificial Life International Competition, for
Interactive Birds
2007 Honorable Mention in Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica, for Totemobile
Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship
2005 Winning Entry and Grant Recipient, Long Island City in Context, for Floating Tree, A Tree
for Anable Basin
2003 Artist’s Fellowship, Computer Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Individual
Project Grant, Daniel Langlois Foundation, for Skeletal Reflections
San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award, “Best of the Bay”, for the
public sculpture Urge to Stand
2002 Daniel Langlois Foundation, Individual Project Grant for Skeletal Reflections
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant
2001 Honorary Mention, VIDA Life 4.0, Art & Artificial Life International Competition for Skeletal
Reflections
2000 Honorary Research Fellow of Trent University in Nottingham, England for the production of The
Amorphic Landscape
1999 Lannan Foundation Grant (via Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco) for the production of
The Cave of the Subconscious
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Grant (via Galeria de la Raza in San
Francisco) for the production of The Cave of the Subconscious
1997 California Arts Council Fellowship - Performance Art
Eureka Fellowship - Fleischhacker Foundation
1996 Art Matters Grant
1995 National Endowment for the Arts - New Genres
1993 National Endowment for the Arts - Collaborative Grant
1991 ARS Electronica - Distinction in Interactive Arts
National Endowment for the Arts - Interdisciplinary Arts
Prix Ars Electronica, Distinction for Interactive Art for Tumbling Man
Arts International grant, Eastern European Tour of The Ancestral Path
1990 ARS Electronica - Honorable Mention in Interactive Arts
National Endowment for the Arts - Interdisciplinary Arts
San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts
1988
National Endowment for the Arts - Interdisciplinary Arts
Selected Press
2021
Green, Kate. “Border Crossers by Chico MacMurtrie.” Critic Picks, Artforum, November 2021.
Moya Ford, Lauren. "13 Arts Organizations Across 5 States and 2 Nations Unite for Desierto
Mountain Time.” Hyperallergic.
Zhang Ga. "Integrativ, interdisziplinaer, interaktiv. Eine Kommentierte Bildstrecke von Zhang Ga."
Kunstforum International, Bd 277, October 2021.
Poirier, Shar. "Art Installation reaches across border". Sierra Vista Herald, May 27, 2021.
Cruz, Azaneth. "Cruzar la Frontera." El Heraldo de Mexico. July 14, 2021.
Llurba, Ana. “What makes us Human? ‘Border Crossers’ by Chico MacMurtrie in El Paso (Texas).”
A*Desk Magazine, October 21, 2021.
2019
Heinrich, Will. “‘Mundos Alternos,’ Where Other Worlds Come to Life.” New York Times.
July 15th, 2020.
Zarley, David. “Chico MacMurtrie's Art Transcends the Southern Border.”
Freethink. September 23, 2019.
Glista, Tia. !Latinx Artists Use Sci-Fi to Imagine Postcolonial Futures.” Papermag. May 17, 2019.
BRIC TV. Robotic Church | BK Made, February 14, 2019.
2018
Sharp, Sarah Rose. ‘’A Giant Robot Artwork Built to Bend Over Border Walls.‘’
Hyperallergic. February 23, 2018.
DeVito, Lee. ‘’Artist Chico MacMurtrie, U-M students build robot that could cross Mexican
wall.‘’ Detroit Metro Times. February 21, 2018.
Slagter, Martin. ‘’Artist at University of Michigan makes 40-foot ‘border crossing’ robotic
sculpture.‘’ MLive. February 21, 2018.
Bruckner, Meredith. ‘’Artist Chico MacMurtrie, U-M students to demonstrate border-cros
sing robotic sculpture.‘’ ClickonDetroit.com February 15, 2018.
2017
Szil gyi, R za Tekla. A brief lunch with the Amorphic Robot Works in Munich. Interview with Chico MacMurtrie and Bill Bowen. Artmagazin. November 17, 2017.
2016
Chico MacMurtrie, The Soft Machines. Trailblaizer. The Dyneemaproject. August 18, 2016.
Meier, Alisson. ‘’The Robots Being Built to Cross the US-Mexico Border‘’. Hyperallergic. April 14,
2016.
Emory, Sami. ‘’Robotic Sculptures Will Cross the U.S.-Mexico Border’’. The Creators Project. February
6, 2016.
Pizarro, Sal. ‘’San Jose City Hall art piece reflects on meaning of borders’’, San Jos Mercury
News. January, 31 2016.
2015
Szewczyk, Stacey. “Robotic Church Founder Chico MacMurtrie And The Giant Inflatable Bridge
He’s Making For Super Bowl 50”. Tech Times. November 26, 2015.
Fallon, Claire. “These Creepy-Cool Robot Sculptures Will Take You to Church”. The Huffington
Post.
Emory, Sami. “A Lifelike ‘Biomorphic Wall’ Grows In Brooklyn”. The Creators Project.
Del Signore, John. “Worship Humanity’s New Gods At Red Hook’s Robotic Church”. Gothamist.
Ronner, Abby. “A Robotic Church Rises in Red Hook”. The Creators Project.
2014
“Robots and Artificial Intelligence”. WNYC Science Fair. New York Public Radio / The Green Space
Brunet, Elena. “Les robots transformers existent! La preueve en video!” Le Nouvel Observateur.
Lechner, Marie. “Invasion de Transformarts a la Cite.” Liberation.
Garcia, Viktor. “Quand la robotique sert l’art: l’expo a voir de la Cite des sciences.” L’Express.
2013
Moore, Madison Alexander. “Chico MacMurtrie’s Robot Ochestra Lands in Red Hook.” The Creators Project.
Preston, Benjamin. “From Welded Worshipers, a Joyful Pneumatic Noise: Chico MacMurtrie’s
Robot Musicians Perform in Brooklyn.” The New York Times.
Meier, Allison. “A Colossal Inflatable Robot Opens Its Arms Into a Portal.” Hyperallergic
Tan, Dion. “Video: Chico MacMurtrie Powers a ‘Robotic Church.’” Artinfo.
2012
Roberta Bosco. “Un enorme reloj rob tico vigilar el cambio clim tico desde California“. El Pais
2007
Lee, Jennifer. “Condos With Water Views, for the Birds.” New York Times.
Selected Publications / Exhibition Catalogs
2017
Mundos Alternos, Art and Science Fiction in the Americas, Hernandez, Robb; Stallings, Tyler;
Szupinska, Joanna; Cornejo, Kency; Kraeher, Rudi; "#$!%$&'()*+,-!./01
2016
“Robots and Art: Exploring an Unlikely Symbiosis”; Series Title: Cognitive Science and Technology;
Herath, Damith; Kroos, Christian and Stelarc; Springer Editions, 2016.
2014
“Art Robotique”. Cite Des Sciences et de L’industrie, Paris, 2014.
Sylvie Parent. “Eveil/Alive”, SESC SP, Sao Paulo, 2014.
“ThingWorld”. International New Media Triennial, NAMOC, Beijing, 2014.
2012
“Reactivation”. 9th Shanghai Biennial. Power Station of Art. Shanghai, 2012.
2008
Di’an, Fan and Ga, Zhang, ed. “Synthetic Times: Media Art China.” MIT Press and National Art
Museum of China, 2008.
Algora, Montxo. ‘’Maquinas y Almas / Machines and Souls’’. Museo de la Reina Sofia. Madrid.
2007 Dixon, Steve ; Smith, Barry. Digital performance : a history of new media in theatre, dance, performance art, and installation. Cambridge : MIT Press, 2007.
Teaching
2020 Visiting Professor and Regent’s Lecturer, University of California Los Angeles
2018/2019 Visiting Professor and Artist in Residency, University of Applied Arts (Angewandte), Vienna, Austria
2018 Visiting Artist at the U-M in collaboration with LSA Department of Humanities, Engineering,
Art and Design, and Information
2011 Interactive Sculpture, Parsons / New School, New York
2009 Interactive Sculpture, Parsons / New School, New York
1995-99 Robotic Sculpture, San Francisco State University, San Francisco