Light Between the Islands background by Grimanesa Amoros
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MOMENTUM

Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amorós MOMENTUM, LED sculpture and light sculpture exploring the intersection of art, technology, and women's creative practice. Exhibited in Momentum: Women, Art, and Technology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2014.
Grimanesa Amoros video thumbnail for MOMENTUM

Location: Rutgers University | New Brunswick, NJ, 2014
9 ft 7 in x 9 ft 6 in x 1 ft
Stainless steel, diffusion material and reflective material, LEDs, custom lighting sequence, and electrical hardware.

MOMENTUM is a site-specific light sculpture installed at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library at Rutgers University, created for the Momentum: Women/Art/Technology exhibition as part of Amorós’s appointment as the 2014–2015 Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence at the longest-running exhibition space in the United States dedicated to women artists.

  • Selected as the Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence for the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series, founded in 1971 by artist Joan Snyder, Amorós became one of the most prominent public light artists to hold the position, with New Brunswick Today (2014) covering her public lecture and silent auction at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library.
  • The Daily Targum (2014), Rutgers’s student newspaper, covered Amorós’s campus lecture, noting her appointment as part of the year-long Momentum: Women/Art/Technology project, which explores the intersection of feminism, technology, and contemporary art practice.
  • The exhibition catalogue features an essay by curator and critic Anne Swartz, who writes that Amorós’s works feel like the stuff of science fiction, creating a sublime, immersive environment that layers references to the physicality of light with deeply Peruvian cultural references.
  • The companion video MIRANDA, with music by Ivri Lider of The Young Professionals, was presented alongside MOMENTUM, expanding the installation into sound and image and offering visitors a complete survey of Amorós’s practice across sculpture, light, and moving image.

    • Grimanesa Amorós was invited to exhibit as part of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series at Rutgers University, the longest-running exhibition space in the United States dedicated to women artists. For this occasion, she presented MOMENTUM, a site-specific light installation that evolved from her larger project UROS ISLAND. Inspired by the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, UROS ISLAND explores ancestral technologies, community, and the preservation of Indigenous knowledge.

    Amorós adapted these themes specifically for the Mabel Smith Douglass Library. MOMENTUM responded to the architecture of the site while aligning with the curatorial focus of Momentum: Women/Art/Technology. The installation emphasized how women and transgender artists continue to expand the role of technology in contemporary art, drawing on cultural memory and innovation to create immersive, reflective experiences.

    MIRANDA
    Single channel video animation. 4 min 40 sec
    Music by: Ivri Lider – The Young Professionals