923 EMPTY ROOMS #523
923 EMPTY ROOMS is a beautiful long-form series inspired by Casey Reas's Atomism series of works, including RGB, HSB, and Still Life works. Reas collaborated with Bright Moments and Art Blocks to create unique palettes for individual cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, Berlin, CMDX, London, and New York. The 923 within the title comes from the total number of possibilities generated by combining the six primary shapes with each of the six cities. Reas aims to connect each city through this shared project, creating a communal experience across the world. The project is an extension of a previous piece, An Empty Room, which was commissioned and showcased by LACMA in 2023 as part of the Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982 exhibition.
923 Empty Rooms is an artwork about simulation and the history of visual representation and abstraction. Each room is a space to explore.
Each of the 923 unique rooms contains a simulated still life, an arrangement of forms. There are six primary forms, each linked to a city: Sun (Tokyo), Shard (Berlin), Cargo (London), Hive (New York), Pyramid (CDMX), and Moon (Los Angeles). A series of rooms will be minted over the course of a simultaneous, six-day exhibition at galleries in each city.
There are 923 rooms in total to iterate through every possible combination of the six shapes:
1 form = 6 unique combinations 2 forms = 21 unique combinations 3 forms = 56 unique combinations 4 forms = 126 unique combinations 5 forms = 252 unique combinations 6 forms = 462 unique combinations
923 Empty Rooms is an evolution of An Empty Room, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for the Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 exhibition. An Empty Room was installed at LACMA from 9 April to 2 July 2023.