Žilvinas Kempinas

About

Comprising a number of installations it is characteristically elemental, representing and embodying natural phenomena such as light and the circulation of air, with an emphasis on movement made by both visitors and kinetic works in the exhibition.

Kempinas’ work involves unprecious everyday objects and materials, and he is most renowned for using unwound videotape. It appeals to him not only as an ‘abstraction’ of moving imagery, but also because of its distinct physical qualities.

Ideas of movement, in its pure kinetic state or as a trace of movement that has already happened, are developed through the artist’s work. His new installation, made especially for Ikon, involves an upside-down video projection of a ride through forested landscape, a mass of metal rods (tripods) painted white and arranged on a high gloss black floor. It combines viewers’ movements through the space and formal density to result in a controlled environment that is immediately disorienting. Characteristically Kempinas is playing a smart aesthetic game, sharing something that is as wonderful as it is real.