TOAST!
I am interested in the feast table as a sculptural manifestation of cultural activity and sharing not only of food but also of ideas that contribute to the growth of the community. The heart of any community is the "watering hole", the dinner table where individuals congregate to create the communal experience. The meal itself, the food and drink, become more than a base corporeal need but rather a catalyst for the communal experience. The dinner table combines the pleasures of food, drink and merriment with the intellectual exercise of sharing ideas: the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
This project is a unique combination of two ongoing interests in my practice as an artist: the social event as cathartic performance and the sculptural installation as an interactive sound and light show.
This installation is based on a large (3' x 27') hand-built table, simple yet elegant, inexpensive yet substantial. The table is fashioned from unfinished pine lumber with simple benches on all sides. Not rich, this table is the meeting place of all; inclusive of a wide sampling of the populace, it is a place for strangers to meet to exchange ideas through the familiar yet archaic convention of the toast. Whether as part of an organized group performance (feast) or an ad hoc small grouping of casual art viewers, the audience is invited to propose toasts at the table as a platform to share political, philosophical or personal ideas or simply to pay tribute to individuals or simple concepts known to all or few.
Lighting and simple mechanical devices beneath glass lenses built into the table are controlled by color organs, in turn activated by the level of sounds around the table. As toasts, speeches and conversation at the table become more animated the frequency and intensity of the lighting will become more acute, bathing the space and audience in a spectacular light experience. The greater the involvement of the participants, the greater the visual reward.
An exercise in immersive abstract cinema.
Helmuth Projects, San Diego. 2016
Using my recently created kinetic sculpture “Palette Fire” (2015) as a starting point, I am creating an exercise in live immersive abstract cinematic performance using an array of kinetic sculptures, overhead projectors, homemade film loops and mechanical shadow casters accompanied by sound created with adulterated music boxes, obscure records and various sound sculptures unified by the haunting sounds of the Theremin.
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"Four Dimensional Painting for Miro".
A sound and light show by Wendell M. Kling.
This performance is based on a brief and uncorroborated statement in wikipedia that Joan Miro was interested in the concept of the four dimensional painting: "Four-dimensional painting is a theoretical type of painting Miró proposed in which painting would transcend its two-dimensionality and even the three-dimensionality of sculpture"-wikipedia.
I propose to create a "Four Dimensional Painting for Miro." This will be a kaleidoscopic performance incorporating sound, light and movement. The artwork will be comprised of two basic objects and their actions; one will be an experimental musical instrument, the other, an animated light projection machine.
The musical instrument is comprised of a table mounted phonographic turntable with an attached disc of material that is turned slowly by a sewing machine. The amplified sounds from this extra slow record will be the backbone or the rhythm of the musical composition. Additional sounds will be produced by an assortment found sound makers mounted on or around the phonograph table. The performer will be seated at this table, controlling both the sound and the light projector.
The light projection machine involves two counter rotating perforated drums that project shadow imagery onto a built in screen and onto to surrounding gallery walls. Multi-colored lighting from within will be controlled by a simple electronic color organ which is, in turn, controlled by the music from the musical instrument. The speed and intensity of the shadow drums, lighting and sound will be controlled by the performer.
Each performance will last approximately 10 minutes.
"Happy Apple Color Organ" is an interactive electronic sound and light instrument. Based on a series of ascending tables the instrument features a careful array of dozens of second-hand table lamps with variously colored and pulsating bulbs all linked to an electronic color organ. The color organ is in turn controlled by the amplified ethereal sounds of the world's first Electric Fisher Price Happy Apple, a 1972 vintage child's toy that has been lovingly electrified by the artist. The space is transformed into a kinetic light-filled environment as the audience is invited to "play" this experimental sound and light instrument, the latest in a centuries-long series of attempts to play light along with music.
A show at the La Jolla Athenaeum.
In which, through a series of sculptural objects, simple digital animations and scissor-cut imagery, I chronicle a series of alien abduction dreams that I had in 1995.
Through the series of dreams I encountered and explored the geography, modern cities and ancient ruins of an alien planet as well as interacted with highly evolved alien beings.
Magic Lanterns and Color Organs
A show at Miracosta college's Kruglac Gallery.
Supper
A Super Monster Shadow Film and Theater Installation by Brian Dick and Wendell Kling.
Southwestern Community College Art Gallery. 02/2006.
Brian Dick and Wendell Kling began their collaboration in 2003 with a Super-8 Monster Movie Event in which they enlisted the help of their friends to build homemade monster costumes from a pile of discarded cardboard boxes, brightly colored plastic tablecloths and duct tape. After a picnic lunch of bean soup and fresh bread these monsters engaged in a multicolored monster melee for three Super-8 film cameras. The film, although non-narrative, was loosely structured around three groupings of monsters according to the three primary colors. Participants were given no instructions other than to converge on a central point and move around according to the dictates of their costumes. The action that ensued was neither battle nor dance but had elements of both. The film (three reels of Super-8 film, slowed to half speed and exhibited as a triptych) contains moments ranging from eerily spooky drama to farcical fantasy.
This event and the resultant film has been the stepping off point of a series of projects that have focused on the notion of Discrete Spectacle. Using as their materials Super-8 film, digital video, cardboard, scissor cuttings, and found recordings they have been able to create a series of finely balanced and nuanced theatrical experiences. “Supper” is the latest installment of this ongoing collaboration. This is an installation in the form of a monster banquet hall/ cathedral(?) featuring a full-scale cardboard proscenium and a lavish feast table. Built out of the same materials as the original monster costumes, the “Supper” installation plays off of the original Monster Movie (2003) as a sort of creation myth for the world of the monsters. Iconic monster images have been lifted from the movie and aggrandized in low budget “stained glass windows”. The space is activated by a series of crude devices projecting simple mechanically animated shadow shows. Featured on the projection screen under the proscenium is a digitally mastered version of Monster Movie, newly edited with additional video segments. Although never narrative in nature, this latest installment of the Monster Movie Saga suggests a progression of a fictional Monster World (perhaps not altogether separate from our own world) from archaic Monster History to refined Monster Culture
Cat Performance.
1988
A twelve foot tall cat puppet jerked and nodded it's glowing head to the raucous sounds of a laughter chorus. Their chorus, began with subtle chuckles and rose to a crescendo of hysterical laughter. Mechanically animated sets gyrated while increasing light levels blinded the audience during the 3 minute performance.
