Throughout her career, the New York-based artist Tara Donovan has explored the transformative potential of mass-manufactured materials, questioning whether they can surpass their origins. In a new exhibit at Pace Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood entitled “Stratagems,” Donovan presents 11 towering new works constructed entirely from CDs, most of which she scavenged and salvaged from eBay. “We live in an age that feels increasingly defined by cycles of ingenuity and obsolescence,” says Donovan. “The archives of human experience have moved from paper volumes to clouds just during my lifetime, and the CD is probably the last vestige of our understanding of data as an object.” She left the discs intact, strategically overlapping and adhering them one another, resulting in structures that get up to nine feet tall. They’re meant to allude to the architecture of skyscrapers, an echo that’s visible from the windows of the seventh floor where the show is mounted. On a sunny day, Donovan’s towers sometimes have a prismatic effect, throwing rainbows of light onto the floor. On May 4, during Frieze Week in New York, Donovan’s friend the choreographer Kim Brandt will stage a performance with six dancers within the exhibition. “Stratagems” is on view from May 3 through June 15, pacegallery.com.
See This: Spiraling Sculptures Made Out of Recycled CDs
Some of the works stand at nine feet tall, alluding to the architecture of skyscrapers.
Tara Donovan’s “Stratagem Vl” (2024). Donovan’s totem-like sculptures are composed entirely of recycled CDs. Photograph courtesy of © Tara Donovan, courtesy of Pace Gallery. 