Learning From Life Cycles – Dan Tran

Increasingly, transdisciplinary artists like Dan Tran are re-assessing their roles in the relationships between buildings, built environments, and the non-built ecosystems that provide the raw materials and energy that sustain them. Individually adopting greener studio practices and making material transitions are common responses to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pollution and many other interwoven social and environmental injustices. Yet, artists are also innately poised to cultivate unorthodox research relationships that weave disciplines, data, experiences and cultures in projects which then weave broader audiences and deeper mutual understanding. In doing so, they fill the ever-increasing need for the diverse, complex collaborations required to confront the complexities of the climate crisis as well as the ever-increasing need for more effective science communication.

In 2020, “Global human-made mass exceed[ed] all living biomass” for the first time (Elhacham, Et al, 2020). After approximately doubling every 20 years over the past 200 years, anthropogenic mass surpassed Earth’s biomass at 1,108 Gigatons and is projected to continue increasing at a similar rate. Passing this anthropogenic milestone during a global pandemic prompted additional shifts in Tran's thinking about the built environment, climate, materiality, and product life cycles. For Tran and others, the combination of pandemic responses and extreme weather responses clearly demonstrated the accelerating impacts that microbes and CO2 molecules have on humanity and Earth. For artists like Tran, it provided deep context for questioning the boundaries and scales of art, questioning things as concrete and ordinary as actual concrete and questioning how they might cultivate new resilience in their practices.

'Learning By Life Cycles - Ongoing work by Dan Tran' is a ‘sandbox’ exhibit that includes prototypical artifacts from Tran’s home studio and ongoing research in biomaterial cultivation, life cycle assessment and energy systems as a UC Davis graduate student where he was recently awarded the 2021 Savageau Award Honorable Mention. It is Dan Tran’s first solo exhibit as an Axis Gallery artist. Central to the exhibit is the Sacramento debut of 'Aperiodic Table', a bi-modular, reconfigurable sculpture. Each module is made from a different biogenic cement composite (BCC) formula. Its geometry is based on Penrose tiling, resembling the aperiodic crystallization patterns which occur in cements at the microscopic level. Like the periodic table of elements or community quilt projects, it is a multi-phase, collaborative project which artists/scientists will add new BCCs to and reconfigure over time.

BIO

“When I look at how new materials are adopted throughout human history—the stone age, bronze age, the industrial revolutions, I'm compelled to think that meaningful material transitions cannot be made without art movements and artists”

Tran’s interwoven art, design and research practices investigate material ecologies and applications that bridge communities between unbuilt and built environments. Raised in a refugee family and trained as an architect and organic farmer, Tran’s life and work continue revolving around adaptations amidst ever-changing environments. In architecture, ‘adaptive reuse’ refers to conversion of spaces and buildings from one purpose to another, often to meet evolving needs of a community. In organic farming, ‘crop rotation’ works similarly, relying on biodiversity, seasonality and microbial activities to continually reinvigorate soil. These concepts propel his practices.

Having worked extensively in the adaptive reuse of plastics, Tran’s current research shifts focus to biogenic cement composites (BCCs) and other bio-based materials. Tran aims to develop BCCs and bio-based materials into a resilient, collaborative, expressive and ecologically responsible mediums that artists, designers and others can cultivate themselves in their creative practices.