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Pelle Schilling (1996) places the viewer’s experience at the heart of his kinetic installations. His large-scale works glow, whip or spatter, sometimes moving all over the place. Yet anyone trying to discern a pattern will be disappointed: each movement is unique and unpredictable. As a result, viewers can continue watching without fully grasping what is taking place. This is precisely Schilling’s intention. His work foregrounds the beauty of perception itself – a physical experience that moves beyond the rational. Meaning emerges in the viewer’s interpretation.
Schilling is fascinated by materials and phenomena. He manipulates and challenges them, creating situations in which they propel one another. The resulting works possess a degree of autonomy, balancing chance and control. For Wire (2023), Schilling slowed the current and melting capacity of an old welding machine, causing the three-kilometre-long steel wire attached to it to move in a dancing, unpredictable manner. Through this endless motion, a jagged sculpture gradually takes shape: a steel web over which the artist has little influence. As Schilling notes: ‘The process and the outcome also need to remain a surprise to me.’ In the accompanying drawings, Schilling withdraws even further from the process: here, the movement of the wire is frozen on paper.
Written by: Esther Darley