Maggie Hazen: Power, Tech and Casual Nexus
Side Street Projects presented Power, Tech and Causal Nexus, an art project by LA based artist Maggie Hazen – an outdoor exhibit that featured a series of sculptures and kinetic structures surrounding the story of Greek mythological inventor, Daedalus. The myth of Daedalus acted as a metaphorical precedent, addressing the cause and effect of technological progress as it related to the forces of creation, growth, and transcendence through visions of failed utopia and the potential of re-creation. The individual sculptures and structures interconnected with each other to create a complex scenario; revisiting history while linking its narrative (both imaginative and factual) to futurist predictions. The strange gadget-like objects—reminiscent of Daedalus’ labyrinth and wing inventions became symbols or landmarks that engaged our contemporary digital universe; asking questions about power, play and progress. From the writings of Sir Thomas More to Philip K. Dicks’, “Bladerunner,” we depicted trends which produce tension between our desires as a culture, contrary to evidence of historical repetition—becoming a simulation or a projection of how we wished the world to be or an exact depiction of what we feared . Maggie Hazen is a sculptor, installation artist and futurist who uses simple objects as building blocks for exploring her interests in cosmology, technology, story and mapping. She constructs landscapes, environments and structures which questions our conscious ability to distinguish reality from a simulated perception. Hazen received her BFA from Biola University in 2011. She has been presented in exhibitions nationally including the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance and has participated in numerous lectures and discussions on the topics explored in her work. She has been featured in a range of magazines and journals including Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institutes Transition Magazine and in a full-length documentary LAR-20 presented at the 6th Annual Korean American Film Festival in New York.
Public Events:
OPENING: April 5th 11-2pm
April 12th 11-1pm : WORKSHOP with James Rojas
Participating artists:
This project was organized by Side Street Projects and made possible through a grant from the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.
BIO
Maggie Hazen is a New York based interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles, working in a combination of moving image, sculpture and performance. She has exhibited and performed at Pulse Miami Beach as part of Pulse Play; The Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, CA; The Granoff Center, Brown University; CICA Museum, South Korea; Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and The Boston Young Contemporaries, Boston, MA, among others. She has had residencies and fellowships at The Bronx Museum; The Shanghai Institute of Visual Art; The Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, European Graduate School, Switzerland; I:O at the Helikon Art Center in Turkey; Vermont Studio Center; and The Pasadena Side Street Projects, CA. She holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at New York University, The Stevens Institute of Technology, The Shanghai Institute of Visual Art and is currently a professor at Bard College in Studio Arts.
