KEKKU

Kekku
2013
Video/kinetic Installation
3 Screens, 3 Blueray players, DC Motor, Steel
300x60x40 cm

The work KEKKU was made for the exhibition “Terveisiä perheestä” (Greetings from the family), that took place at Gallery Huuto in August 2013. The exhibition dealt with issues revolving around family and the protagonists in the video footage are my wife, our daughter and I. 
The video shows certain body parts of us sitting on a swing. The vertical aliened screens show us swinging together. The whole set up itself swings back and forward by a DC motor.
The video footage is of different length and generates constantly surprising twists especially because the image freezes for some second in the end of the loop.
While we were shooting the scene we also realized that it actually was the first time that all three of us were on the playground together. It dont mean a thing if it aint got the swing.

 
-->

Hand On Wire

http://vimeo.com/67590727

2012

Video/kinetic sculpture

Motors, plasma TV, 16 m rail system, metal construction, HD box

2x HD video footage, vertical and horizontal filmed

Duration of single clip 02:40 min

-filmed at Suvilahti, Helsinki and Temppeliaukio, Helsinki

Performers; Thomas Westphal, Niklas Faupel

Electronical Expertise: Gregoire Rousseau

Mechanical Support: Federico Ortegon Perez

 

The starting point for this work was video material that I shoot in summer 2011 at the Suvilahti industrial ground and at Oksasenkatu in Töölö. Because of the different nature of these places the format was chosen to be vertical (Töölös narrow tall streetscapes) and horizontal (Suvilahtis wide industrial scenery). In both locations we see a hand ropewalking electricity lines between buildings.

The videos are shown on a large plasma screen that moves along a 16 m long rail system from one side of the gallery wall to the other. In the end points the screen rotates from vertical to horizontal position and vice versa. Actually this unusual twist originated from the fact that I work with video from the perspective as a sculptor. While shooting the video material on site I did not consider yet that the horizontal/vertical shift would become a difficulty later on. After all I am quite satisfied that the solution to this problem

became an important aspect of the final work.

The distance of the rail system is corresponding to the distance of the original settings. Also the pace of the moving hand in the video image matches the speed of the moving screen. I used two different motor systems, one for the spatial movement and the other for the smooth rotation of the screen. 
A motivating idea behind the installation was a playful concern with space. It became a stage on witch the activities may it be musical or physical performed. What I brought to the space was actually an object installation that was formally constructed through the filter of documenting. The relationship with time, bringing one thing to another, how the exhibition space acts not only as a space as a time dimension as a document somehow.  

Vertigo en el corazón- Vertigo in the heart

 
-->

 

Vertigo en el corazón- Vertigo in the heart

https://vimeo.com/68515329

2012

Video/kinetic sculpture

Motors, video projector, HD box, metal construction, wind engines

2x HD video footage (GoPro action cameras, body strapped)

Duration of single clip 02:45 min/ 00.06 min

-filmed at Alexanderplatz, Berlin

Base-jump and camera: Uli Westphal

Electronical support: Gregoire Rousseau

The starting point for this work was video material that I shoot in Berlin in September 2012. My location was the 120meter high Park Inn Hotel at the Alexanderplatz in the heart of the city.
The video consists of a skyline view of Berlin and a base-jump sequence. All video was shoot with handheld and body strapped/helmet mounted Gopro HD cameras.
For displaying the video I was building a projection screen (224x124cm) with a steady mounted video projector at the end of a cone shaped 3-meter extension. This whole segment is hanging on ball bearing hinges mounted to a solid steel foundation. The screen is motor controlled and can be moved from vertical 90° to 180° angel. It happens in regular intervals that are set by relays and two different timing devises.
In the vertical position it shows the skyline of Berlin with the remarkable TV Tower. The video is slightly shaking and protruding steel elements and cables in the image give a hint to the viewer that it is taking from some sort of platform or building roof. Two strong wind engines behind the screen create a slightly unsettling atmosphere. Every 01:40 min the screen goes into almost 180° position. During this process it shows the perspective of a person free falling down the building facade. (In this case my brother Uli Westphal, that filmed this with body strapped cameras). The jump was professional supervised.
The two video files 02:45 and 00:06 min are played from HD box and are triggered by sensors in the mainframe. The work has been running over a period of 2 weeks and worked flawless during this time. On request of visitors the interval time was changed from original 4 min down to 3 min and finally to 1:50 min which seems to be the common border of visitors patience.

Elevated Jam

  Elevated Jam

http://vimeo.com/67594577

2012

HD, single channel video on screen

Duration 01:35 min

-filmed at Suvilahti, Helsinki

Performer Son Pham

 

The video was filmed in the industrial setting of Suvilahti a former energy production area in Sörnäinen, Helsinki. It encompasses nine buildings and two large gasometers.

The idea was to explore the given architecture in an unusual visual and acoustic way.

I was cooperating with three members of the German progressive metal band TrueFalse

that visited me for two weeks and put their musical expertise to practice.

In Elevated Jam, the protagonist Son Pham is drumming on the steel hull of a giant gas clock. During the play he slowly elevates upwards and with the ascent also the acoustic properties of the building start to change. Reaching the top not only the scenery widens up to us but also the perception of the architecture as such.

 

Live Wire

http://vimeo.com/67599042

2013

HD, single channel video on screen

Duration 03:58

-filmed at Suvilahti, Helsinki

Performer: Tra-My Pham

Sound: Samuli Tanner