Event #3: The People’s United Nations (pUN) – Pedro Reyes

I’m going to be honest here. Of all the events I’ve attended this quarter, Pedro Reyes’ exhibit, The People’s United Nations, is by far the exhibit I’ve enjoyed the most. Reyes uses a combination of science and art to create a social commentary towards the world today.

Me, with both the Disarm Clock and the Force Field Analysis

Disarm Clock, one of Reyes recent pieces, is a repurposing of various guns collected by the Mexican government into an art piece that designates time and serves as an instrument. It can regularly alarm according to time and is a beautiful rendition of peace. The purpose of The People’s United Nations is to emphasize and facilitate peace, open arms and an end to violence, and this piece is clearly that.

Another one of Reyes’ artworks, titled Force Field Analysis, depicts several figures in a perpetual tug of war. This piece, utilizing a simple, yet scientific approach via Newton’s Second Law of Physics, emphasizes to the audience that, in an argument, if no one is willing to compromise, goals cannot be met.

One of Reyes' more recent works, urging
for the universality of genetic science

Reyes' Drone Dove

The reason why I enjoyed Reyes’ exhibit was because this exhibit clearly displays the topic of our class, combining the two different cultures of science and art to generate a third culture that can spread the message to both the scientific community and to artists alike. In Reyes’ art, there is a certain depth of understanding to his use of science that clearly defines him as an artist that not only utilizes science, but is interested in it and is willing to learn what he can about it to apply to his art. 

Website:

http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/hammer-projects-pedro-reyes/