PERPETUAL MOTION

2022

Oh ye seekers after perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you pursued? Go and take your place with the alchemists.

— Leonardo da Vinci, 1494

If you’re reading this, congratulations. You’ve stumbled upon something special, an impossible creation that artists and dreamers of antiquity pursued and ultimately gave up on. An illusion, but one that yields something beautiful. You’re looking at a perpetual motion machine. This art show is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of myself and nine other dreamers not unlike those Renaissance fools in search of an unlimited source of energy. We call ourselves CapsLock, and what started in 2011 as a group of students with common interests has grown and matured into a group of artists with a common promise: We swear never to let each other give up on the dream of making art that matters to us. In the interest of keeping that promise, we meet every Tuesday to connect and to encourage each other. We talk about our art practices, and we share the things that are giving us joy and trouble, both creatively and in general. Personally, it is often the highlight of my week.

The ball bearings in those ancient perpetual motion machines were each meant to propel their fellows even as it was propelled by them in return. In the same way, we get back from each other the energy we pour in. This is the founding principle of the CapsLock Collective. Where the metaphor breaks down is that perpetual motion machines are a fantasy, they don’t actually work. When pitted against the natural grit and grime of the universe, all the careful schematics and theories amount to little more than beautiful, self-contained Rube Goldberg devices. Yet in the futile pursuit of the impossible, perhaps we can achieve the unlikely. It’s that kind of futile pursuit that makes art so magical in the first place, in both the creation and the experience. We attempt to create the Ideal, and though we may fall short, we are closer than we were when we began.

So, in the spirit of perpetual motion machines, I hope this show offers you a glimpse of the impossible, that it reminds you of the ways you get back what you give to others, and that it encourages you to keep chasing the dream, whatever it is.

Remember, the process is progress.

-Lee and the CAPSLOCK Collective-