Marie Lienhard
EQUILIBRIO
2-channel video loops Installation, 2023
EQUILIBRIO is a two-channel-video installation that sets two works of the artist into dialogue, allowing for new layers of meaning to emerge: “shared Wings” (2021) presents to the viewer interconnected spheres, in the form of three black helium-filled balloons, which lift thin rods upwards, precisely balanced out, to float horizontally. The work is reminiscent of Alexander Calder’s light mobiles, but in this arrangement, it is turned upside down and thus freed from its gravity. A balancing act against gravity that becomes a floating equilibrium.
The second piece, LIMBO (2017), allows the viewer to observe two half kilo magnets floating at a distance. These are held apart by carbon fibers that anchor them in the walls: The two metal blocks thus stay poised, levitating in a horizontally tensioned balance. Movement reveals the vibration between the two magnets a-rhythmically until they lock again in exact symmetry. Here, the law of gravity is overcome by the law of attraction.
Both works are powerful yet delicate: even the smallest movement sets the system into motion and in doing so mirrors the light falling upon it. Set in dialogue – particularly within the framework of motherhood(s) – they bring forth questions of fragility, co-dependence, vulnerability, power play, support structures, absence and presence.
Marie Lienhard
EQUILIBRIO
2-channel video loops Installation, 2023
EQUILIBRIO is a two-channel-video installation that sets two works of the artist into dialogue, allowing for new layers of meaning to emerge: “shared Wings” (2021) presents to the viewer interconnected spheres, in the form of three black helium-filled balloons, which lift thin rods upwards, precisely balanced out, to float horizontally. The work is reminiscent of Alexander Calder’s light mobiles, but in this arrangement, it is turned upside down and thus freed from its gravity. A balancing act against gravity that becomes a floating equilibrium.
The second piece, LIMBO (2017), allows the viewer to observe two half kilo magnets floating at a distance. These are held apart by carbon fibers that anchor them in the walls: The two metal blocks thus stay poised, levitating in a horizontally tensioned balance. Movement reveals the vibration between the two magnets a-rhythmically until they lock again in exact symmetry. Here, the law of gravity is overcome by the law of attraction.
Both works are powerful yet delicate: even the smallest movement sets the system into motion and in doing so mirrors the light falling upon it. Set in dialogue – particularly within the framework of motherhood(s) – they bring forth questions of fragility, co-dependence, vulnerability, power play, support structures, absence and presence.