NEW YORK, NY.- Finding inspiration in the constant regeneration of perception, Hein's work asks the viewer to become aware of the elemental processes that form sensory reality. Born from ideas in Eastern philosophy and sculpture's potential for profound spatial recombination, the works offer a world of experiential simultaneity. Intersecting Circles uses the artist's mirror lamellae (tall strips of highly polished mirror anchored to the floor) to create a blurred, labyrinthine experience of the gallery space. Walking through the space awakens the latent capacity for infinite suggestive spaces, causing a temporary interruption in experience that is both disorienting and elevating. On opposing walls, Sun Mirror and Moon Mirror face one another, each made from fragments of mirror reflecting multiple angles in one plane. They slowly rotate around their respective centers, a planetary, mathematical movement that here also perpetuates a kaleidoscopic view of one's self and surroundings. Putting the viewer's place in the world in flux, Hein asks for a pause to focus on the act perceiving in a new way.
Breathe From Pineal to Hara, a visual representation of an energy-balancing breathing exercise, consists of concentric rings of colored neon behind a two-way mirror. As the rings alight from inner to outer and back again, the shifting reflections of viewers and the surrounding space activate new images while the hypnotic rhythm of the neon intimates a breathing cycle. The usually unconscious act of breathing becomes a subject, a physical manifestation of being part of this world as well as propositional others. Experiencing one's self in different permutations in one space, situating the body and mind in new ways, Hein acts as guide to an inner voice, a picture of existence that involves fragmented and multiple perspectives at once. Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe With Me, an interactive public art project presented by Jeppe Hein and ART 2030, will take place September 21-24th at the United Nations Headquarters, and September 25th-27th in Central Park, to raise awareness that the air we breathe is part of our connected world and climate. Jeppe Hein lives and works in Berlin. His work is included in the 58th Venice Biennale this year. Recent solo exhibitions include SCAI Park Tokyo (2019); "IN IS THE ONLY WAY OUT," Cisternerne, Copenhagen (2018); "Inhale - Hold - Exhale," Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2017); "Distance," SKMU Kristiansand, Norway (2017); Jeppe Hein Semicircular Space, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2016); This Way, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2015); "A Smile For You," Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2013); "360˚," 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2011); Sense City, ARoS Museum of Art, Århus, Denmark (2009). He has been included in recent group exhibitions at Hayward Gallery, London; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; MMK, Frankfurt; and CCA Wattis, San Francisco. His works are held in institutional collections including Tate Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Jeppe Hein lives and works in Berlin.