Cross Lane Projects, Kendal, is excited to announce it will reopen this Spring with an exhibition by Dean Kenning, winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2020/21.
Dean Kenning makes kinetic and sound sculptures, as well as videos and diagrams. His work is engaged with political, philosophical and scientific questions, and is produced through hands-on material and process-based experimentation, and in the spirit of DIY problem solving.
This free exhibition has been developed over the past year by the London-based artist, the 18th recipient of the prestigious award. Kenning has used this time to extend the possibilities for his kinetic sculptural practice to instigate affective, pathetic, and uncanny encounters whilst speaking to a vital ‘life force’.
For ’Evolutionary Love’ in Kendal, Kenning has produced a series of semi-autonomous, interactive creatures, which crawl and drag themselves continuously around the gallery, avoiding obstacles and interacting with visitors and each other. This new work is more technically sophisticated than Kenning’s previous kinetic artworks, but the effect is more ‘animalistic’ than ‘robotic’ as the focus remains on the aesthetics of movement, particularly nervous or compulsive movement. “My ambition is to induce pathos and alertness in the viewer, as the mechanical behaviours of the moving sculptures suggest creaturely states, such as fear, curiosity and physical struggle towards a goal.”