Fabian Seiz
21 Nov 2008 - 11 Jan 2009
FABIAN SEIZ
"I Could Hit the Ceiling"
21 November 2008 - 11 January 2009
Project Space
Wilkinson is pleased to announce the first UK solo show by Austrian artist, sculptor and video artist Fabian Seiz.
The fragility and possibility of materials, and their interaction with space, provide a pervading tension within Seiz's practice. Constructing baffling objects to resemble clever, functioning machines, his forms nonetheless remain purposeless. They exist on the fuzzy border between object and sculpture, playing with the viewer's sense of perception and physicality and notions of cause and consequence. Seiz's practice however is not just one of a sculptor / installation artist. The constructions he creates are often further referenced within corresponding video works.
For Wilkinson, Seiz presents I Could Hit the Ceiling (2008), a video installation in which it appears that a man is attempting to climb a set of stairs built and displayed by the artist. On reaching each next step however, the actor fails in his attempt at ascent, as the entire staircase 'sinks'. In the end the actor is left flailing at a constant level, regardless of the effort put into the climb. Whilst the situation seems to be a joke on the unfortunate man, it is he, rather than the viewer, who has the last laugh, for the film's apparent action is just a trick. In reality he is walking slowly backwards down the stairs, yet the video is speeded-up and itself reversed, ensuring the man is walking at a normal pace, forwards.
The character is presented as a man doomed to failure in his efforts, and the physicality of this is reminiscent of the physical comedies of earlier cinema. I Could Hit the Ceiling seeks to garner the same innocent wonder that early audiences had for these initial cinematic outings, meanwhile bursting that bubble by presenting the stairs and camera stand used in the film's production as sculptural objects.
These sculptural objects are not in fact, despite their appearance, from the original set. They are rebuilds of the originals made to a different scale for this show: a jest that even in the explanation, the whole truth is not quite being presented.
"I Could Hit the Ceiling"
21 November 2008 - 11 January 2009
Project Space
Wilkinson is pleased to announce the first UK solo show by Austrian artist, sculptor and video artist Fabian Seiz.
The fragility and possibility of materials, and their interaction with space, provide a pervading tension within Seiz's practice. Constructing baffling objects to resemble clever, functioning machines, his forms nonetheless remain purposeless. They exist on the fuzzy border between object and sculpture, playing with the viewer's sense of perception and physicality and notions of cause and consequence. Seiz's practice however is not just one of a sculptor / installation artist. The constructions he creates are often further referenced within corresponding video works.
For Wilkinson, Seiz presents I Could Hit the Ceiling (2008), a video installation in which it appears that a man is attempting to climb a set of stairs built and displayed by the artist. On reaching each next step however, the actor fails in his attempt at ascent, as the entire staircase 'sinks'. In the end the actor is left flailing at a constant level, regardless of the effort put into the climb. Whilst the situation seems to be a joke on the unfortunate man, it is he, rather than the viewer, who has the last laugh, for the film's apparent action is just a trick. In reality he is walking slowly backwards down the stairs, yet the video is speeded-up and itself reversed, ensuring the man is walking at a normal pace, forwards.
The character is presented as a man doomed to failure in his efforts, and the physicality of this is reminiscent of the physical comedies of earlier cinema. I Could Hit the Ceiling seeks to garner the same innocent wonder that early audiences had for these initial cinematic outings, meanwhile bursting that bubble by presenting the stairs and camera stand used in the film's production as sculptural objects.
These sculptural objects are not in fact, despite their appearance, from the original set. They are rebuilds of the originals made to a different scale for this show: a jest that even in the explanation, the whole truth is not quite being presented.