Professor Isla Hansen‘s solo show “Human Pyramid” opens at the Lightwell Gallery in Norman, Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma with artist’s talk and reception on October 12. The exhibition is on view until November 12.

“Human Pyramid” includes custom designed and fabricated anatomical hand tools and parts; automated slowly moving walls of bodies; tessellated brick walls; stacking block puzzles; and hand water-colored 3D animations. Through the use of digital fabrication processes and automated technologies in combination with the hand made, hand modeled, hand molded, and hand finished, the artist aims to reveal the myth of automation — the often hidden human labor that is always a necessary part of using these tools, often perceived as more technological than our own bodies. “Human Pyramid” explores the contradiction, absurdity, tragedy, and joy inherent in the human attempt to build worlds and control them through the use of tools and labor. Inspired by DIY home construction shows, erector sets and construction games, objects of play, sports media, and the notion of self-replicating machines, Human Pyramid searches for an aesthetic that reclaims the tools of oppressive systems constraining bodies at play and bodies at work.