Artists Craft Sacred Objects in a Tech-Driven World

August 12, 2026 - 06:56

At Casemore Gallery, the current exhibition "Automata Sigils" brings together six artists who are deliberately slowing down the creative process in an age of instant digital output. The show, which opened this month, is not a rejection of technology outright, but rather a quiet counterweight to the isolating rhythms of screens, notifications, and algorithmic feeds. Instead, the featured works lean into the tactile, the ritualistic, and the hand-worn.

The title itself hints at a collision of worlds: the automaton, a mechanical device that mimics life, and the sigil, a symbol charged with intention. Together, they suggest objects that are both functional and talismanic. The artists on view work across ceramics, metal, fiber, and wood, but they share a common approach that treats making as a form of meditation. One sculptor builds intricate bronze vessels that reference ancient reliquaries, while another weaves large-scale tapestries using natural dyes and hand-spun wool, each thread a deliberate act against the disposable culture of mass production.

Curator notes describe the exhibition as a response to "an isolating future," one where human touch is increasingly mediated by interfaces. The works do not pretend to offer easy answers, but they do propose a different kind of relationship to time. A series of carved stone tablets, for instance, bears no text, only the subtle pressure of the artist's tools, inviting viewers to slow down and read with their hands as much as their eyes.

What ties the six practitioners together is a shared belief in the power of the object to hold meaning beyond its material form. In a world where everything can be copied, shared, and deleted in an instant, these artists insist on the singular, the imperfect, and the slow. "Automata Sigils" runs through the end of the month at the gallery's main space.