Artist Statement
My work explores the aesthetics of systems, expressed through forms of precarity, paradox, transitional states, balance, and edge conditions. Drawing on the histories of sculpture and installation, my constructions often take the form of kinetic systems assembled from accessible, everyday materials—chairs, paint cans, phones. These works move, shift, or hold tension over time, creating self-contained, autonomous systems that refer only to themselves. In this way, each piece operates as its own being, revealing itself through shifting methods and temporalities.
I take inspiration from computational concepts such as repetition, copy-paste, sampling, loops, feedback, and interfaces. I use these not as mere tools, but as aesthetic and compositional logics through which I construct these poetic systems. Process and material presence are foregrounded through exposed mechanisms—motors, pulleys, sensors, and cables—that articulate the system as a whole. The aesthetic is minimal and intentional, shaped by accessibility and the everyday. While the materials themselves are not precious, their arrangement is deliberate and structured. Each work is a temporal object, unfolding through action and interaction, inviting viewers into a quiet encounter with movement, space, and perception.
I aim to create artworks where form and function blur, and where mechanics and computation are experienced not as utility, but as rhythm, structure, and imagination.
Through this practice, I seek to cultivate an alternative discourse around systems and technology—one that moves beyond control and productivity, toward an open-ended engagement with presence, process, and being.
Bio
I was born in New Delhi, India, and currently reside in Ypsilanti, MI. My work has been exhibited at various national and international venues, including Science Gallery Detroit, Speculum Artium Media Festival in Slovenia, New Media Caucus (NMC), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Boulder Public Library, The Boulder Creative Collective Warehouse, The Hyde Park Art Center, Sector 2337 Art Gallery & Printing Press, Tangible Embedded Interaction (TEI), International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), and Infosys Pathfinders Institute.
I am also a member of Wetware Instruments, a performance duo creating work at the intersection of sound art, performance, chemistry, biology, and digital technology.
I currently work at the Robotics Department at the University of Michigan, where I work on the MBot Educational Platform.
CV
Email: abnarula@umich.edu
MFA Studio Art - Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan
MS/BS Electrical Engineering - Georgia Institute of Technology
My work explores the aesthetics of systems, expressed through forms of precarity, paradox, transitional states, balance, and edge conditions. Drawing on the histories of sculpture and installation, my constructions often take the form of kinetic systems assembled from accessible, everyday materials—chairs, paint cans, phones. These works move, shift, or hold tension over time, creating self-contained, autonomous systems that refer only to themselves. In this way, each piece operates as its own being, revealing itself through shifting methods and temporalities.
I take inspiration from computational concepts such as repetition, copy-paste, sampling, loops, feedback, and interfaces. I use these not as mere tools, but as aesthetic and compositional logics through which I construct these poetic systems. Process and material presence are foregrounded through exposed mechanisms—motors, pulleys, sensors, and cables—that articulate the system as a whole. The aesthetic is minimal and intentional, shaped by accessibility and the everyday. While the materials themselves are not precious, their arrangement is deliberate and structured. Each work is a temporal object, unfolding through action and interaction, inviting viewers into a quiet encounter with movement, space, and perception.
I aim to create artworks where form and function blur, and where mechanics and computation are experienced not as utility, but as rhythm, structure, and imagination.
Through this practice, I seek to cultivate an alternative discourse around systems and technology—one that moves beyond control and productivity, toward an open-ended engagement with presence, process, and being.
Bio
I was born in New Delhi, India, and currently reside in Ypsilanti, MI. My work has been exhibited at various national and international venues, including Science Gallery Detroit, Speculum Artium Media Festival in Slovenia, New Media Caucus (NMC), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Boulder Public Library, The Boulder Creative Collective Warehouse, The Hyde Park Art Center, Sector 2337 Art Gallery & Printing Press, Tangible Embedded Interaction (TEI), International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), and Infosys Pathfinders Institute.
I am also a member of Wetware Instruments, a performance duo creating work at the intersection of sound art, performance, chemistry, biology, and digital technology.
I currently work at the Robotics Department at the University of Michigan, where I work on the MBot Educational Platform.
CV
Email: abnarula@umich.edu
MFA Studio Art - Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan
MS/BS Electrical Engineering - Georgia Institute of Technology