TALLINN.- Anne Katrine Senstad’s immersive light installation Radical Light, created especially for the newly opened art center in Port Noblessner in Tallinn, Estonia is open until April 26th.
Kai Art Center and Tallinn Music Week (TMW) held an open call for the composition of a musical piece inspired by Senstad’s exhibition and the winning entry will be played at Kai Art Center during the last week in March and at the TMW festival, which takes place from August 26th–30th 2020.
'Slender glass tubes filled with neon and argon illuminate the space at color temperatures between 3500 to 8300 Kelvin, ranging from warmer satin and egg-shell whites to colder green and icy blue hues, indicating simultaneously the physical character of the color white as well as its culturally acquired connotations.
The large hall at Kai Art Center has been divided into two matrices of light columns augmented by an intimate video installation, an “antechamber”, where hypnotic moving images have been projected onto a bed of white salt crystals. The installation produces a separation between the light source as an information channel and its cultural meanings, demonstrating how various shades of white are nothing more than sensations of electromagnetic wavelengths that can be altered by changing the ratio of noble gases harnessed within the glass tubes. The physical properties of neon and argon facilitate the transportation of electricity that produce luminal spectrums with a discrete durational hum.'
With a unique sound environment composed specifically for Radical Light by acclaimed composer JG Thirlwell, spatial audio arrangements engulf the space in luminous sounds in pure form. Senstad has collaborated with Thirlwell on numerous occasions since 2000, most notably Senstad’s solo exhibition during the 56th Venice biennale in 2015, The Vanity of Vanities.
The installation is an invitation to encounter the perceptive sensations of light and sound in pure form and their transformational effect on the experience of space. As one of Senstad’s largest indoor works to date, the light sculpture is conceived as a monument and a matrix—a vast spectral light sphere—which allows the public to experience being submerged in the radiance of light of the highest spectrums when wandering through the historic former submarine factory. While the exhibition thas taken place during some of the darkest months in Estonia, the immense light sculpture illuminates the dark season of the northern hemisphere.
Film program
The film and lecture program accompanying the exhibition opens an important chapter in the history of art – from the late 1960s to early 1970s – inspired by minimalist and land art and represented by a number of famous American artists such as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter de Maria, Doug Wheeler, and James Turrell. Films will include Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art (2015), Spiral Jetty (1970) and Sun Tunnels (1978).
Artists' Film Workshop
Kai Art Center hosts a workshop led by the film producer Gareth Evans and filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmermann on Sunday, March 15th from 12pm to 6pm. The day-long workshop Navigation and Situation – Making and Showing Outside the Frame touches upon various challenges that artists and independent film-makers face. The workshop is accompanied by three film screenings.
