Installs, Galleries, Designs, Festivals, and Burning Man
Tempus Fugit
MFA Thesis Exhibition – Werby Gallery, CSULB. April 2023
“Please cut a string with these scissors.
Please put back when you are done”.
A red gridded steel frame, with a single string of yarn tied to each intersection, totaling over a thousand strands. The yarn collects over a large pulley into a bundle that connects across the room to a hanging counterweight: an amalgam of antique clocks and a chandelier. With each strand severed the counterweight gets closer to falling.
Butterflying
A collaboration with Bin Youn. February 2023
Butterflying is a collaborative installation using sculptural forms and video projections. 33 laser cut butterflies sculptures and 6 projectors envision a dreamlike “butterflying” experience for visitors.
Special thanks to Sri Guttikonda & Cameron Nagai
Hearts in SF
San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s Annual Fundraiser
A collaboration with Dede Lucia, Srikanth Guttikonda, Kyle Matlock, and Looking Up Arts. Making one of these hearts has been a decade-long dream. The design is a fictional landscape of some of my favorite Victorian homes, with some of the windows replaced with diffused addressable lighting.
Lamp Post
A collaboration with Srikanth Guttikonda and Tracy Scott. We created a new dynamic on a classic sequential memory game, making it multiplayer with a towering lamp post for a unique spin on the form factor. It is paired with a web app, so players can competitively play together.
Abyss
Long Beach October 2022
A collaboration with Bin Youn, installed at the Gatov Gallery at California State University, Long Beach in October 2022.
Abyss was originally installed as a group show and later installed again as a part of CSULB Grad Crit Week.
Cone Down at Adobe Max Conference
Los Angeles, CA 2022
Cone Down is back with a bunch of new updates.
About Adobe Max Conference: “With 200+ sessions and hundreds of inspiring speakers, MAX 2022 was an amazing event. You can still experience this global celebration of creativity by viewing the best of the sessions on demand.“
Sirsasana
Burning Man 2022
With Srikanth Guttikonda as the lead artist. Recipient of Black Rock City 2022 Honoraria. I helped with the initial design, using a hyperboloid as the core design element. Returning to the project on the third design iteration, I helped prepare machine files, designed the initial “leaf” concept for the sun sails, designed the structural steel mid-ring and top platform, made the chandelier, and was part of the on-playa build team.
Ladybug at Burning Man 2022
August 28 – September 5
Featured in the Art Garden surround Sirsasana, Ladybug was a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of the inner-playa.
Phoenicopterus Rex at Long Beach Pride
July 6-10, 2022
Installed at the Long Beach Terrace Theater as a part of Long Beach Pride Weekend Festivities. Phoenicopterus Rex was placed adjacent to the stage for pride weekend kickoff at the Long Beach Convention Center.
Ladybug
Saratoga Springs, CA
California Foundation for the Advancement of the Electronic Arts Grant recipient for Summer 2022.
A collaboration with Soma Holiday, Ladybug is an interactive sculpture where standing participants use arcade buttons and joysticks to control a mesmerizing array of addressable LEDs to change the patterns for those viewing below.
Day Trip LA
June 25-26, 2022
Phoenicopterus Rex celebrates its second Day Trip Festival next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA.
“Breathe in the fresh ocean air & sun-soaked vibes, as Day Trip Festival takes over the scenic waterfront at Queen Mary Park in Long Beach. Two stages & two days of Strictly House Music All Day Long at one of the most historic locations in the SoCal area!”
Pink Torch 2022
San Francisco, CA
Returning in 2022, the Pink Torch symbolically connecting Bay Area communities to celebrate the 27th anniversary of Twin Peak’s Pink Triangle beautifully lit by Illuminate.
Josh Zubkoff and Srikanth Guttikonda worked with Daniel Macchiarini who helped to cast the handle with recycled aluminum.
Photo by Ray Chavez
Wander Bloom
EDC Las Vegas 2022
An exploration in suspension and making the everyday act of walking an unfamiliar experience. Wander Bloom is a freestanding series of six intersecting suspension bridges, meeting at a central platform. The lighted bridge slats change colors and sway as you walk over them. Each step creates a sense of immediacy with the re-evaluation of balance and grounding.
“We’re Bucket People Now”
Long Beach 2022
This piece is a meditation on mass. “We’re Bucket People Now” is a twenty foot wide teeter totter, framed in dimensional lumber and plywood with three five-gallon buckets on each side acting as shifting counterbalances. As the water moves from counterbalance to reservoirs, the sculpture lilts gently from side to side, taking almost an hour to complete a full cycle of movement. The staggered cycles of the counterbalances prevent sharp movement, but also acts as a momentum dampener so the piece is less responsive to external stimuli–acting like a large lumbering beast unfazed by smaller nuisance creatures.
In the Desert
Long Beach 2021
Using the text of Stephen Crane’s 1895 poem, “In the Desert”, along with the visual cues from contemporary celebratory platitudes, this piece explores what it means to celebrate and the places we derive pleasure from in life, even it’s difficult moments.
“the ground beneath your feet”
Long Beach 2021
Inspired by Chris Burden’s “Samson”, each step along the platform makes the viewer question if THIS step is the one that tears out the wall. Much like Burden’s “Exposing the Foundation of the Museum” the structure that is usually quietly in the background becomes a key player. With each step, the platform flexes and wobbles. The familiarity of the ground beneath your feet is replaced by a set of unknowns. The participant is only eighteen inches off the ground, but the feeling of danger is heightened by these alien attributes.
Kaleidoscope
Firefly Festival 2021
Kaleidoscope, a procession of laser etched opalescent butterflies and prismatic flowers illuminating a glen of space and time. This project debut at Firefly Festival 2021 in Dover, Delaware and entertained over 50,000 festival goers. Built with Cameron Nagai, James Lucey, Srikanth Guttikonda, & Looking Up Arts.
Day Trip Festival
San Bernardino 2021
NOS Events Center – July 3+4, 2021
Phoenicopterus Rex joined Insomniac’s Day Trip Festival and struck a beautiful reflective pose across the lagoon.
Pink Torch
Oakland/San Francisco 2021
Returning in 2021, the Pink Torch symbolically connecting Bay Area communities to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Twin Peak’s Pink Triangle beautifully lit by Illuminate.
Josh Zubkoff and Srikanth Guttikonda worked with Daniel Macchiarini who helped to cast the handle with recycled aluminum.
River of Light
Liverpool UK 2021
Rainbow Bridge had the honor of joining Culture Liverpool’s 2020 River or Light in Liverpool’s Historic City Centre. The event was rescheduled to spring 2021.
River of Light Trail: Tuesday 23 March – Monday 5 April
Pink Torch
Oakland/San Francisco 2020
Symbolically connecting Bay Area communities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Twin Peak’s Pink Triangle beautifully lit by Illuminate.
Josh Zubkoff and Srikanth Guttikonda worked with Daniel Macchiarini who helped to cast the handle with recycled aluminum.
Read more at: https://medium.com/beyond-burning-man/illuminating-the-pink-triangle-a5b31752113a
Electric Daisy Carnival
Orlando 2019
We installed the Rainbow Bridge at Tinker Field in Orlando, FL.
BLINK Cincinnati
Cincinnati 2019
BLINK is one of the largest light, art and projection mapping events in the nation.
Returning October 10-13, 2019, this free four-day event takes place in downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, spanning more than 30 city blocks and crossing the historic John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Ohio River.
Cone Down
Burning Man 2019
30′ tall climbable upside down ice cream cone. Cone Down was a playful reimagining of the inevitability of failure. There was aerialists, dance floor, DJs, and a terrifying ladder
RA/VE
California Foundation for the Advancement of the Electronic Arts Grant recipient for Summer 2019
A cheeky homage to Robert Indiana’s seminal piece. With LED work by Srikanth Guttikonda and masterful LED wiring design by Tracy Scott.
Electric Daisy Carnival
Las Vegas 2019
EDC Las Vegas is the largest dance music festival in North America with over 400,000 attendees over three days.
Phoenicopterus Rex
Lyft Art Park, Las Vegas NV. April 2019 – Present
The Lyft Art Park features tons of quirky art pieces to explore and photograph. The Lyft Art Park, from the folks behind the Lyft rideshare service, is located at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street.
Stepwell
Proposed Design
Stepwell is a large wooden burnable interactive sculpture, featuring hundreds of steps, augmented reality projector mapping.
Art Basel Miami
Miami 2018
Art Basel in America at Miami Beach ranks as the premier art show of the Americas offering a premier platform for renowned artists and galleries.
Rainbow Bridge
Burning Man 2018
The debut of the Rainbow Bridge. Built with the help of over a hundred volunteers, Rainbow Bridge is over 17,000lbs of steel, 25,000 LEDs, and 96 stairs.
Temple of Life
Proposed 2018
My first application to build the temple for Burning Man. Temple of Life is 49 trees arranged in three concentric rings.
Burnal Equinox
Burning Man Burnal Equinox 2018
Phoenicopterus Rex had the chance to visit our neighbors at Public Works
Wings
California Foundation for the Advancement of the Electronic Arts – Summer 2017
Recipient of 2017 Summer Art Grant
Phoenicopterus Rex
Burning Man 2017 – 2017 BRC Honoraria Recipient
Phoenicopterus Rex’s debut! 40′ tall and gleaming pink. Climbable and fun, surrounded by artificial turf and white picket fence.
World’s Fair Nano
San Francisco 2017
Worlds Fair Nano is a whirlwind two-day festival filled with mind-blowing technology, futurist talks, interactive art, live music, food, and more. At Worlds Fair Nano, we believe the future should be fun.
Wings
Burning Man 2016
With LEDs and interactivity from Opal Holley. Driven by a Kinect and would allow participants to control LEDs by moving their arms.
joshzubkoff.com 