Echelon
Sebastian Kite
VideoApril 24 – May 10, 2014
“Greek architecture taught me that the column is where the light is not, and the space between is where the light is. It is a matter of no-light, light, no-light, light. A column and a column brings light between them.”
–Louis Kahn
Sebastian Kite (b. 1986) is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. Kite creates experiential environments to choreograph the sensory engagement of people with architectural spaces. His practice lies at the intersection of art and architecture, with a particular focus on site-specificity. Beginning with an analysis of the site, Kite uses structure, kinetics, light, projection and sound as strategies to illustrate new readings of space.
Echelon at AC Institute is Kite’s first American exhibition. The video has been made in response to the Baroque interior of St. Georges Church in Bloomsbury, London. Kite used flash photography to shoot high contrast images of the architectural features of the church at night. This film presents a frenetic spatial augmentation of the site, manipulating perspective, scale and depth to produce a restructured architectural space within the projected frame. The illusion of movement and continuity normally applied in filmmaking is here disrupted in a form of cinematic violence.
About the Artist
Kite graduated as an architect in 2010 (Glasgow School of Art, Westminster School of Architecture) and also has a background in music. Kite co-established Kite & Laslett, an art and design studio in London. The duo realizes projects from technical drawings via engineering solutions through construction to installation.
Recent commissions and exhibitions include: Sonica Festival, Glasgow, UK, 2013; Vestige, The Design Museum, London, UK, 2013; The Conductor, Established & Sons, London, UK, 2013;Ikono On Air Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2013; Curious, Helmkehof, Hannover, Germany, 2013;Lichtspiel, solo show, Import Projects, Berlin, Germany, 2013; +-0, Postbahnhof, Berlin, Germany, 2012; Confined, NEST, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2012; Restructured, St.Georges Church, Bloomsbury, London, UK, 2012; platform79 – the berlin project, Gerichtsgefängnis, Berlin, Germany, 2012; La Cura, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia, Milan, Italy, 2012; Enclosure, Hoxton Gallery, London, UK, 2011; Relay ‘A Leap In The Dark’, Testbed1, London, UK, 2011; Musarc, St. Bartholomew the Great, London, UK, 2010; Contact, Kite & Laslett Studio, London, UK, 2010; Candescence, Kite & Laslett Studio, London, UK, 2010