Sculpture is the duo of electronic music producer, Dan Hayhurst, and animator, Reuben Sutherland – manipulating physical and digital media into energetic amalgams, inspired by a continuum of exploratory practice in music and abstract visual art while following their own idiosyncratic vision – a DIY aesthetic encompassing auto-production, pop music, noise, comic strips, abstract film and animation, collage and polymorphic techno.
Live performance is integral to their work. Sutherland’s visual turntablism employs a library of zoetropic cards, printed with intricate patterns of illustrated frames which come to life when filmed with a video camera, projecting looping fragments of surreal, luridly coloured imagery into eyeballs and brains at 25 frames per second – mechanical imaging technology combined with digital video and software based practice. Hayhurst feeds tape loops, lo-fi electronics, and digital sequences to a battered reel to reel tape recorder, CDJ deck, walkman, sampler and FX units. Balanced on the edge of control, the resulting polymedia overload is raw, exciting, the process visible to the audience, experimental and joyous.
Through 2015 and early 2016 the duo released tapes on Phinery and Digital Death Records, an animated 8″ lathe cut postcard on Hasenbart Records, and a 7″ animation picture disc, Zyprazol.
Sculpture’s Membrane Pop LP was released in 2014 by Software, a label curated by Daniel Lopatin, AKA Oneohtrix Point Never. A live AV cassette/digital/video splice, Video Plot, followed in October. In January 2014, the duo’s self-released animated 7″ single, Plastic Infinite, became an instant cult artifact.
Sculpture previously made two animated zoetrope picture disc LPs for Dekorder records - Rotary Signal Emitter (2010) and Toad Blinker (2011). Their third LP, Slime Code, was released in 2012 on 7 unique cassettes plus digital edition by patten’s Kaleidoscope imprint and later reissued on vinyl by Digitalis.
