MOCAD – the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit — hosts one of the most remarkable exhibits in the galaxy, Robolights Detroit.
The site-specific installation is an incredible mix of realizations based on ideals formed from science, fiction, arts, letters, dominoes and a multiverse more contained withing the creative mind of artist Kenny Irwin, Jr., the mastermind behind the masterpiece known as Robolights – the wildly popular sci-fi themed art installation of epic proportions located in Palm Springs, California.
Robotlights Detroit is organized by Amy Corle, Curator of Education and Public Engagement. On exhibit through May 20, 2020, the installation s located and created for the lawn of Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead at MOCAD. Click here for complete details.
In Robolights Detroit, visitors are invited to wander along pathways inside of a dazzling carnival filled with sculptures of towering robots, dinosaurs, alien spacecraft, and fantastical creatures from the future, all painted in a wondrous array of vivid colors and wrapped up in thousands of lights. A companion exhibition featuring sci-fi themed pen and ink drawings by Irwin will take place inside of the Mobile Homestead. Both exhibitions are accompanied by a book of photographs of the original Robolights in Palm Springs by Julie Reyes Taubman, the late founding member of MOCAD.
The original Robolights was constructed by Irwin over the course of thirty-three years on the grounds of his childhood home in Palm Springs, California. Originally conceived in 1986 as a seasonal holiday light display, Irwin felt compelled to continue working on Robolights year-round and across decades. By 2018, having hosted 60,000 visitors between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, with an installation spanning four acres and including 8 million lights, it was clear that Robolights was outgrowing the residential neighborhood it had long inhabited.
Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead is commissioned by Artangel in association with MOCAD, LUMA Foundation, and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, with the generous support of the Artangel International Circle. Support for Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead is provided by Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and the MOCAD Leadership Circle.
The A. Alfred Taubman Foundation is the presenting sponsor for Robolights Detroit.
