Biography

Wendell M. Kling

Artist Statement/Bio.

10-2017

I am a Southern California based interdisciplinary artist and educator. I received my BA and MFA in studio art from UCSD in 1989 and 2000 respectively. I have shown my artwork locally and nationally in venues such as Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Ship in the Woods, Bread and Salt, the Miami Basel Art Fair (2005) and the MAK Center in Los Angeles. I am currently Professor of Sculpture and New Genres at San Diego Mesa College.

My work is grounded in contemporary interdisciplinary practice and includes sculptural objects as well as two dimensional media, installation, performance, film and video. Often exploring the formal and contextual qualities of the social "Event" (the feast, the party, the cinema), I address not only the physical qualities of a space but also an inherent interaction between artist, artwork and audience. My performances and installations explore the relationship between sculpture and performance beginning with three-dimensional tableaux that are manipulated and transformed in front of live audiences. Relationships between audience members, sculpture and viewer, and performer and audience are explored during cathartic, discretely spectacular productions. These events combine sculptural objects with theatrical constructs of space, lighting (projected images), sets, video/film and sound into time-based artworks. My recent work is informed by an interest in the pre-history of cinema and the [projected] moving image as well as simple animations. Re-contextualizing archaic and simple technologies (chromotropes, color organs, phonographs, Altered music boxes, found sounds, bent circuits) I have been creating a series of instruments that combine sound and light which have been used in interactive installations and live performances.