Known for his kinetic installations of infernal machines and robot figures, Malachi Farrell creates performing sculptures: tanks that attack space, Christmas trees that spin and smoke, singing and dancing potatoes, and Nike-shod robots resisting arrest. Employing a shipping container parked adjacent to the UCSB College of Creative Studies as an alternative site, Farrell will develop a theatrical environment that also functions as a kinetic sculpture. This work involves transforming the interior of the bus with dancing tubes and kissing machines—mechanical components that in his hands take on uncanny personalities. At the same time, the exterior will support a pair of oversize, gesticulating mechanical arms, allowing the entire bus to be seen as a giant figure from the distance. Taking advantage of the familiar associations a bus provokes—public use, mobility, the common action of a mass of people—Farrell’s interactive installation employs technology to expose and comprehend human idiosyncracies in a way that speaks both to children and adult viewers. Farrell’s successive residencies at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Univeristy Art Museum in Santa Barbara will mark his first exhibitions west of the Atlantic Ocean.

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