The Rath of Plod : Artist’s Clunky Contraptions Fail to Capture Earlier Quirkiness

The first Alan Rath sculpture I ever saw was an audio speaker whose vibrating membrane made strange panting noises in the gallery. Even though it obviously was a simple mechanical device, the experience of hearing and watching it expand and collapse was eerily like watching a human heart.

Intrigued, I kept an eye out for more. Rath, who has a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also has made eccentric work with cathode-ray tubes. He isolates images of body parts (stroking or waving hands, moving lips, blinking eyes) in ways that reaffirm the mechanical aspects of the human body while giving the electronic components a weirdly poignant humanity.

So I had high hopes for Rath’s trio of recent robotic sculptures at the Huntington Beach Art Center (a show selected by Renny Pritikin, chief curator at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco).

But in these pieces, Rath’s quirky logic yields to a more mechanistic approach. Rather than dissecting human movements by means of engineering, he invests clunky aluminum contraptions with a few vaguely anthropomorphic qualities. The presentation is different too. Though the earlier work had a low-key, experimental quality, the newer work begs showily for your attention.

In “Robot Dance,” a pair of 5-foot-long, computer-controlled elements perform an abrupt sequence of movements. They extend fully (not quite touching), bend at right angles in opposite directions, fold in on themselves and rotate--sometimes simultaneously and sometimes out of sync.

Had the gallery note not referred to the gadgets as “arms,” I’m not sure I would have seen this “dance” as anything more than the routine paces of a rather dull kinetic sculpture.

Piquant shapes and a humorously inconsequential mechanical movement enliven “California Landscape.” Unlike Isamu Noguchi’s “California Scenario,” a permanent outdoor installation in Costa Mesa that reflects different types of terrain, this “landscape” seems to be mostly psychological.

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On the wall, an elongated oval metal shape rotates now and then, as if keeping time according to some internal whim. On the floor, a cart-like object travels briefly back and forth on a track. Inside are two contrasting forms: a horizontal oval projecting into space with an explorer’s zeal and a tall, laid-back triangle.

And then there’s “Friends and Acquaintances,” a curiously lumbering tableau that involves two robots and three cabinets that open and shut. The robots are macho types with metal projections--called “tongues” on a wall label--that unfurl when the spirit moves them.

Sometimes the robotic projectiles connect with the cabinets as they slowly open up.

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The byplay between the insistent tongues and the flirtatious cabinets (another one flashes a white light behind a translucent panel) gives way at times to a parody of one-upmanship, as the unspooling lengths of metal gesture toward each other and curl up in defeat.

This is all good fun, but it’s played out in such bold strokes that it more resembles an adolescent male computer game than a nuanced work of art. Unlike “California Landscape,” the mechanics of the piece don’t have much visual appeal. Ultimately, Rath’s recent explorations seem to be too much about the efficiency of engineering and not enough about the meandering, inexplicable paths of art and life.

* “Alan Rath: New Robotic Sculptures” continues through Aug. 16 at Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, noon-6 p.m.; Thursdays, noon-8 p.m.; Fridays-Saturdays, noon-6 p.m.; Sundays, noon-4 p.m. $3; $2 students, seniors. (714) 374-1650.