@londonart blog

art that moves

Kinetica Art Fair 2012
Ambika P3 Gallery
08-12.02.12

The annual Kinetica Art Fair is back in Ambika P3 gallery this week, with many exhibits, seminars and performances lined up for visitors to indulge themselves into art that moves and performances that intrigue.

There is a shift in the people who exhibit this year - more universities are showing student works, Kinetica Art Museum also seems to be occupying a larger area to showcase their collection. The programme also present the Musion Academy MAMAs Awards.

Overview of the venue this year

The followings are some highlights of this year, with more to come in part 2 in our next post.

Titia Ex's Flower from the Universe is the welcome piece visitors will see by the entrance

Titia Ex featured in Deutsche Welle's youtube video - link

Linear UV drawing (2012) by David Ogle - David's florescent fishing lines remind viewers of the metal wires installation by Lygia Pape showing recently in Serpentine Gallery

Gear Mobiles by Jonathan Miller has a retro sense of elegance & precision

Gear Mobiles by Jonathan Miller - link

Karen Neill's Liquid Crystal art

The booth of Alexander Berchert has 3 wonderful installations on display

Water Wheel (2011) by Alexander Berchert - video link

Xylophone Wheel (2011) by Alexander Berchert - video link

*****

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the circus at kinetica art fair

Kinetica Art Fair

Ambika P3 gallery

03-06.02.2011

Spotlight Entrance Sign

In its 3rd year from the debut in 2009, Kinetica Art Fair has gained the status of flagship event in London's art world for February, and provides a fundamentally different flavour to art-lovers from January's London Art Fair.

As of last year, there's a 'weclome' piece at the entrance to the fair - however it is ironically full of EXIT signs:

Exit-Wall by Cécile Colle & Ralf Nuhn

There are also some layout changes to various parts of the fair - the cafe has moved from below the main entrance platform to the platform, right behind the reception counter, replacing the souvenoir and kinetica publications / merchandise shop. One may wonder whether the sales of merchandise would be significantly affected because it exists only as one of the exhibition stands now, losing its prominent physical location. Or perhaps the sales of food & beverage is a much more profitable business which even the organiser can't resist the tempt to make more money from it?

The bar has moved from the main exhibition level to the entrance level

There is an anchor piece at each end wall of the gallery - a moving floral matrix (above) as the backdrop of the bar, and a video projection wall (below) at the other end. This actually helps to contain the space and give some visual stimulations to people when they are walking across the exhibition stands at the main exhibition area and looking up.

The rear end wall of the gallery is filled with video projections this year

Here are a few highlights (in no particular order) in the fair -

Tunnel View by Hans Kotter at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art

Seeper - interactive visualisation sphere

Moving objects no 486 - 501 by Pe Lang - there's a real sense of life in these cables if you keep looking at them!

Fascinating Revolving Installations consisted of calculators (front) by David Cranmer

Work, Eat, Sleep by New Opera Hero

Trailer of a similar show they have done at the Shunt last year - video link

Electro Set Visuals - these are part of the contents they performed in the fair - video link

Floatins Forecaster by Poietic Studio, with each foam sphere's motion individually customisable by an iphone app interface

The Particle by Alex Posada

Official video from the artist's vimeo - video link

Departures 2010 by the Trope Troupe - this screen-based travel information system is meant to help travellers to be aware of local laws

Moodski 2004 by the Trope Troupe - sample more here: http://t.co/CzBiggq

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*****

kinetica at hotel elephant

Vanishing Point: kinetic sculptures by Ivan Black and mathematical images by Reuben Powell

Kinetica Museum at Hotel Elephant

16.10-14.11.2010

Kinetica Museum is opening their latest show in the Frieze week last friday. Kinetic installations by Ivan Black and drawings by Reuben Powell are shown in Reuben's gallery space in Elephant & Castle.

video link

Reuben Powell's drawing

Full photo set

Location -

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london art fair / kinetica art fair 2010 - part 2

The London Art Fair (LAF, review part 1 here) & Kinetica Art Fair 2010 (KFA,review part 1 here) were hold within a month, and their close proximity in time allow for some observations I would like to share here.

From the approach to the venue, I found that LAF has done quite a bit of propaganda around the venue -

The projection screen outside the Business Design Centre facing Upper Street would feature art after dark

Outdoor bus gallery from CCA

On the contrary, KAF was well hidden from the eyes of the pedestrians. Probably not entirely their fault due to the location of the venue is deep inside the plot and below street level, but I do remember it has taken me some time to figure out the way in last year. The organiser probably has identified this as well, and they have brought a spectacular moving milk float around town and on the media to get more publicity -

The milk float by Ben Parry & Jacques Chauchat (video link)

Apart from the regular exhibitor booths, both fairs have developed a series of special programmes to provide more fair-specific experience to their audience. LAF has ArtProjects which showcased 25 emerging artists/projects & Photo50 with works selected by a distinguished panel. KAF has teamed up with Cyber Sonica in its performance line-up, and held a section called Kinetic Masters showing vintage art pieces from advocates of kinetic installations.

Live performance by Musion Academy (video link)

It was the first time I attended LAF so I couldn't compare it with my past visits. But for KAF, I had a feeling the performance section has become more prominent and features a greater variety of acts. And the stage this year has involved more complex set-up which makes the performances even more enjoyable. Unfortunately the exhibitor booths do not live up to the same standard/expectations. Some of the works are fairly fancy/gimmicky without the real fun element. Having said that, there are still some truly delightful pieces around, such as these two -

Generator by Rudolf Pacsika (video link)

Flutter by Cinimod Studio (video link)

I also found there are only 2 or 3 exhibitors showing interactive / electronic art pieces in LFA. Considering we are living in the world of facebook & twitter, apple & google, and this is "London's" art fair which the city has a fame of avant garde and cutting edge tradition on its creative industry, it is slightly disappointing. Whether this is the problem of the organiser, the exhibitors or just the general economic climate; I do not know.

Full set of London Art Fair 2010 photos here

Full set of Kinetica Art Fair 2010 photos and additional video clips here

Ocean of Light by Anthony Rowe, a sonic-sensitive LED matrix (video link)

Peal by Monomatic (video link)

kinetica art fair 2010 - part 1

Kinetica Art Fair

04-07.02.2010

Ambika P3 Gallery

The jean tinguely-like milk float at the entrance

Kinetica Art Fair returns to London after its acclaimed debut last year. There are more live performances than last year, and from the turnout of the VIP preview this evening, interest is definitely huge among the public.

The bar area below the entrance

One of the Interactive exhibits - sonic-responsive LEDs

Apart from kinetic exhibits, there are also live performances

Read the reviews by various papers on Kinetica Art Fair's facebook page. More to come in part 2.

art february in london

overview of the entrance

Kinetica art fair debuts in london this year. Ran from 27.02-02.03.2009, the fair connects collectors, curators and the public to view and purchase artworks from leading international galleries, artist's collectives, curatorial groups and organisations specialising in kinetic, electronic and new media art.

cinimod studio's beacon in collaboration with chris o'shea - more here, here & here.

tim lewis' pony - it strolls around with visitors 'shaking hands' with its head

wall of eyes by adrian baynes - they are motion-sensitive, would keep looking at you no matter when you move!

I attended one of the panel discussions ‘What is the Future Of Sound and Light?’, in which Martyn Ware (Future of Sound), Mike Faulkner (D-Fuse), Ghislaine Boddington (bodydataspace) & Jason Bruges showed the audience how they develop their works, how to cope with expectations from the public, bureaucracy from government officials and what have they done in the past. It is pretty valuable session -