Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
At the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF), artist Tara Donovan unveils Stratagems, a captivating installation that reimagines a once-familiar technology as something immersive. Composed of thousands of stacked compact discs (CDs), the work rises into luminous formations that shimmer, refract, and continuously shift as viewers explore the space. What begins as recognizable material quickly transforms into an optical experience that feels both architectural and atmospheric.
Renowned for her ability to elevate everyday materials into large-scale environments, Donovan continues her long-standing investigation into perception, accumulation, and the hidden potential of ordinary objects. In Stratagems, she invites viewers to reconsider not only the physical properties of CDs, but also the fleeting nature of the technologies that shape contemporary life.
Throughout her career, Donovan has developed a distinctive visual language rooted in repetition and transformation. By using mass-produced materials such as plastic cups, pins, straws, and index cards, she constructs installations that blur the boundary between sculpture and environment. Her works often evoke natural phenomena such as cloud formations, geological growth, or shifting landscapes, despite being built entirely from industrial components.
With Stratagems, Donovan turns her attention to compact discs, an object that once symbolized cutting-edge innovation but has since slipped into obsolescence. Rather than presenting them as nostalgic artifacts, she activates their latent visual complexity and reflective qualities, allowing them to function as both medium and subject.
“We live in an age that feels increasingly defined by cycles of ingenuity and obsolescence,” Donovan tells My Modern Met. “In the span of my own lifetime, the archives of human experience have moved from paper volumes to ‘clouds.” Her choice of materials becomes a meditation on time, memory, and technological transition. The CDs, once vessels of stored information, now exist as physical remnants of a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Within the ICA SF’s glass-walled annex, Donovan’s sculptures rise in dense vertical formations that echo the silhouette of an urban skyline. From afar, these structures appear solid and monolithic, their surfaces reading as continuous planes of shimmering color. As viewers approach, however, the illusion begins to dissolve. The stacked discs reveal themselves as intricate layers, each one catching and bending light into shifting spectrums that ripple across the surface.
The experience of the work becomes increasingly immersive as light interacts with the material. Reflections scatter across the gallery, producing subtle chromatic shifts that respond to both the viewers’ movement and the changing conditions of the space. What initially appears static becomes fluid and unstable, encouraging prolonged looking and careful attention.
“As relics of a very recent past, their quick erasure from material culture exemplifies the chaotic speed of technological advancement,” the artist notes.
The architectural context of the installation plays a crucial role in shaping its visual impact. Situated within a transparent gallery space at the Transamerica Pyramid Center, the sculptures are continuously animated by natural light that shifts throughout the day. Sunlight filters through the glass, intensifying the reflective properties of the CDs and casting layered patterns of light and shadow across the room.
“The implication is one of infinite vertical expansion,” Donovan says. “Having this iconic piece of architecture as a visual corollary brings the city itself into the experience of the work.”
The towering CD forms suggest the upward thrust of skyscrapers, yet they resist the functional constraints of architecture. Instead of serving a utilitarian purpose, they explore the expressive possibilities of structure itself. “As an artist, I don’t have to follow the rules of architecture,” Donovan explains. “Rather than focusing on use, function, and operation, I give myself the freedom to tease out structural possibilities for purely aesthetic and experiential ends.”
Despite their industrial origins and precise construction, Donovan’s sculptures possess an unmistakably organic quality. This tension between controlled repetition and emergent form lies at the core of her practice. Each work begins with a simple set of rules, which are then carried out through sustained, methodical labor. Over time, these repetitions accumulate into complex structures that appear to grow and evolve. “Living structures develop through similar means,” Donovan explains. “My work might appear ‘organic’ or ‘alive’ because my process mimics basic systems of growth found in nature.”
The visual experience is further complicated by the interaction of light within the layered surfaces. Shadows settle into narrow spaces between discs, while reflected light creates a shifting interplay of depth and transparency. “The viewer experiences a constant slippage between foreground and background,” she says, “resulting in perceptual shifts that read visually as a form of vibration.”
The title Stratagems offers insight into the conceptual framework underlying the installation. “A stratagem is any clever scheme, sometimes one designed to deceive, in order to create chaos around perceptions of reality,” Donovan explains, all of which resonates with the experience of the work itself.
This notion of perceptual instability is central to the installation. Surfaces that appear solid begin to dissolve under closer inspection. Forms that seem fixed become dynamic as light and movement intervene. Through the accumulation of simple elements, Donovan constructs an environment that challenges viewers to question the reliability of their own vision. By harnessing the overlooked qualities of a discarded material, she creates a space that is at once contemplative, immersive, and in constant visual flux.
Stratagems by Tara Donovan is a luminous installation that transforms thousands of obsolete CDs into towering, light-shifting sculptures, immersing viewers in a constantly changing visual experience.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Donovan is known for turning everyday materials into large-scale environments that explore perception, repetition, and the hidden potential of ordinary objects.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (installation view), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by Nicholas Lea Bruno, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (Install in Progress), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by of Nick Stone Schearer via SHVO, courtesy of ICA SF.
Presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, the exhibition reflects on technological obsolescence while using light, reflection, and accumulation to create structures that feel both architectural and organic.
Stratagems (Install in Progress), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by of Nick Stone Schearer via SHVO, courtesy of ICA SF.
Stratagems (Install in Progress), 2026. CDs, concrete, stainless steel. © Tara Donovan. Photo by of Nick Stone Schearer via SHVO, courtesy of ICA SF.
