ZEE © Kurt Hentschläger
It proposes a state of “tabula rasa” (latin for blank slate), where one’s perceptual framework is first reset and then recalibrated.
The audience enters a space filled with extremely dense fog, so that the confines, walls and ceiling of the space, always remain fully obscured. Stroboscopic- and pulse light filters through the fog, in a softened and evenly dispersed manner, creating kinetic structures in constant flux.
The core visual impression of ZEE is of a psychedelic architecture of pure light. It is an abstract luminescent landscape, surrounding the visitor in a seemingly holographic fashion, with no apparent screen or projection apparatus present.
This ephemeral impression is resulting from light (wave) interference phenomena; its synthesized inside one’s brain and so becomes a “mind-scape” rather than being an optical perception of a surrounding environment.
“The result is an immersive environment of flickering light in which the “real” physical world mutates into a primordial soup of pulsing sound, mist and colored light. ...This is the world as viewed by a dying robot clone from the inside of a Turner landscape painting. “ from an essay on FEED by Claudia Hart The audience can freely roam the ZEE sphere, while the nature of the work emanates an almost automatic process of slow motion. Suspended flexible ropes, from and to the entrance gate, mark the available space and lead into- and out of ZEE.
An ambient and minimal sound-scape connects to the interference patterns and the changes in color, frequency, intensity and mood. ZEE is an almost quiet work, seen in relation to the earlier work of Kurt Hentschläger and Granular Synthesis.
The audience can freely roam the ZEE space. The nature of the work instills an almost automatic process of slow motion. Suspended flexible ropes, to and from the entrance gate, mark the available space and lead into and out of ZEE. One therefore cannot get lost in it or bump into obstacles.
The overall composition is best understood as a fluctuating “organism”.
ZEE by Kurt Hentschläger
Co-commissioned by: OK-Center Linz, and Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh
Management – Richard Castelli / Epidemic
Supported by: BMUKK -Austrian Ministry for Education, Art & Culture
MEDA™ - vision beyond
Production Assistance – Shane Mecklenburger
Technical Assistance Touring – Alexander Boehmler, Ian Brill
Thanks to
Claudia Hart, Ray Harmon, Lotte Hentschläger, Murray Horne, Martin Sturm, Norbert Schweizer,
Dedicated to the memory of my friend and brother in law Zelko Wiener, 1953-2006.
