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Feature Exhibition

Ghost in the Machine & Celestial Mechanics.

The Kinetica 2014 Feature exhibition at Kinetica Art Fair 2014 highlights the work of 20 artists, from 10 countries working in celestial dimensions.

The title of the show references the workings of the universe, the governing force in nature, the hidden mechanics and the mysterious motion that make things ebb and flow in constant flux. Many of the works offer insights into new dimensions, where boundaries are fine-lined and the impossible becomes possible.

Radu Apetroaia’s work defies what is commonly known as the 3rd dimension, his gravity defying device gives us a glimmer into realms of the 6th dimension.

Willem Van Weeghel’s converging & contracting shapes become an emotional testimony of the insatiable desire to know where the universe ends. Through the clarity of geometry, he interweaves motion into the Gordian knot called time, signifying a slowly expanding Universe.

Ivan Black’s serpentine and undulating counter balanced helixical work inspires a vista of energetic proportions, replicating DNA patterning in relation to nature, whilst Mari Prichard’s simple use of a bag and salt translate gravitational movement into a plethora of Celestial drawings, and is inspired by workings of the pendulum; similarly, Balint Bolygo’s Eclipse projections are forms reminiscent of cosmic bodies, alluding to natural phenomena such as the aurora borealis, nebulae & distant galaxies.

The works in the show are certainly out of this world and reveal something of how artists understand our place in the universe; the manifestations are magical and mystical, as the artists seek out the holy grail in the workings of the celestial.

“The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths”. Bruce Nauman 1968

Paul Friedlander, a physicist turned artist, reveals his beautiful findings in string and quantum theory through waveform sculptures. Waves being the most basic physical constituent of the universe by which everything travels, including every communication device in and around the Earth. Christopher Kennedy’s frozen images capture and mirror the quantum leap Friedlander’s waveforms play out, to transport us into vibrant depths of time travel. Hans Kotter’s Fractal Structure and Three Tubes invite us to lose ourselves in the infinite depths of the macro & microcosmos, from the minute particle to the infinite wormhole.

Rachael Linton’s cymatic & vibrational works have the ability to heal through colour and sound; the harmony of the waveform and accompanying sound and colour give rise to the idea that invisible harmonics, vibration and waveform are intrinsic to our well-being.
Artists are a vital part of the current dialogue surrounding scientific advances and issues, there is enormous value for them to work on the frontiers of emerging technologies, not only to produce new works and advance new discourses, but equally to probe these fields. Through the art itself and within cultural debate, new concepts and ways of thinking arise.

French theorist Jean-François Lyotard called artists ‘transdisciplinary performative users of knowledge’ where they extract knowledge from an area of science and through their own artistic process and appropriation, re-present and often simplify scientific concepts with challenging results and new meanings.

Karolina Haletek’s alluring Enter me invites us to enter into a realm of light to experience it from the inside, a metaphorical gate to the infinite, where the viewer is suspended in a safe and shadowless zone – the dark side of the moon. Dianne Harrrris’ As above, so below questions the illusion of reality and duality, and the idea that both are one or part of each other, magnetic forces at play in homage to planetary intervention; her Shedding the self focuses on the idea of the human spirit overtaking all physicality, the body as the vehicle.

Christian Zanotto’s Holotheca allows us a glimpse into a timeless dimension to watch an ‘act of creation’ questioning, who and what is creator? Helston & Jackets work in the same holographic plane of illusion,and play homage to space travel, remote relationships & man as part of interstellar society. Daniel Chadwick and Dijon Hierlehy focus on constellations, planetary mapping, multidimensional possibilities and the vastness of space. José Manuel González addresses ideas on fractals and chaos, finding mathematical beauty within the chaos and order of things, whist
Mike Booth explores how light can be used to transform and mystify through colour & movement, his work echos the sun’s effect in the natural world and the resplendence of colour.

In this state-of-the-art world we strive for creativity and inspiration on a day-to day basis. Never before has the fusion between creativity and innovation, science and technology been so closely interlinked. The division of the world into just arts and science ignores the fact that technologies mediate both. It is possible that in this intersection of art and science, in the process of interdisciplinary work are keys to answers we seek.
Ryan Buyssens’ Resistence work of mechanical birds speaks from the legacy of the Renaissance era, where there was no strict distinction between art and science. The Celestial Mechanics feature pays homage to the fact that when freedom of thought is unbound and unrestricted, ideas fly free. Nik Ramage’s absurdist junkyard Gramaphone reminds us of a past time as indicated by the inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott’s ‘Flatland’, who are unaware of the third dimension. Ramage revisits the wonder of releasing ghostly voices and sound shadows stored in a spiral groove, the sounds from the discs react to physical motion to set them free. Jonty Hurwrwitz’s The mathematics of me brings things back to Earth, to the physical element of touch, the human element by which we relate to everything – through our senses.

The transdisciplinary nature of the artworks and installations selected, blur the boundaries between philosophy, science and mysticism, and draw on ideas from human engineering, to cybernetics and quantum theory.

If the definition of art is the human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature, these artists act as important catalysts for creative and innovative processes and outcomes. They bridge the gap to take ideas to the next level through visual representation, suggestion and abstraction, breaking the stigma attached to any discipline to bring instant complexity and understanding. The works are a comment of where we are and where we are being propelled, there is magic in these findings and a life-affirming awe in the celestial mechanics that truly govern all.

Curated by Dianne Harris