In 1831 Joseph Plateau invented the Phenakistoscope.
This animation device could, for the first time, give a fluent illusion of motion and was operated by placing a series of pictures showing sequential phases of an animation in radial array on a cardboard disc.
Small rectangular apertures were spaced evenly around its rim and the user would spin the disc while looking through the moving slits at the images – which were reflected in a mirror.
The scanning of the slits across the reflected images prevented them blurring, and the user was ‘tricked’ into seeing a rapid succession of images as a single moving picture. The Phenakistoscope thus paved the way (via Eadweard Muybridge) for the entire Hollywood motion picture and film industry.
In 1962 Alberto Garcia-Alvarez was living not far from Hollywood in San Jose, California. His 2-year-old son Pablo had been diagnosed with an eye deviation and to correct the problem was forced to follow a series of eye exercises.
Pablo’s inventive and always-curious father started experimenting with double-image drawings intended to encourage the boy to correctly focus by using both eyes simultaneously.
Alberto remembers the process as “opening up a contributing and interesting direction to my daily art activities. The experiments I made with movement led me to the idea of the ‘carousel’ and right up until today I have been making objects that involve movement. That creative activity took its own direction and all manner of round objects and artworks using mixed ideas and media have followed”.
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez’ exhibition – Time – presents new works on canvas, paper and board alongside a series of Phenakistoscope-inspired discs from as early as 1965.
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
No Principio, No Fin / Picado
2014
mixed media on board
800mm Dia
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
1
2022
mixed media on paper, mounted on board
940mm Dia
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Marina
2003
mixed media on board
620mm H x 500mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Parallel Expansion from the Center
1997
mixed media on card
325mm H x 325mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Sunspots
2004
mixed media on board
550mm H x 550mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Corona
1985
ink on board
620mm H x 500mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Particle Theory / Milky Way
1995
mixed media on card
465mm H x 465mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
NZ Sky / Moontides
1980
crayon on board
745mm H x 745mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Lux
1967
wax crayon on card
440mm H x 335mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Supernova / Scorpion
1982
acrylic on board
500mm H x 620mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
The First System
1965
acrylic on card
525mm H x 525mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Sagittae (Arrows)
1984
ink on card
465mm H x 465mm W (frame)
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Llum
2023
mixed media on paper, mounted on board
1220mm H x 1220mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Ombra
2023
mixed media on board
1220mm H x 1220mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Punto
2022
mixed media on canvas
2120mm H x 1700mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Punto
2022
mixed media on canvas
2120mm H x 1700mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Punto
2022
mixed media on canvas (detail)
2120mm H x 1700mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Punto
2022
mixed media on canvas (detail)
2120mm H x 1700mm W
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
12 Noon-12
1975
acrylic on board
440mm Dia
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Over NZ
1985
oil on board
590mm Dia
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Over Barcelona
1982
oil on board
590mm Dia
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez
Time
2023
Installation view