michael lipkin michaelblipkin@gmail.com 970.309.1114
current: Sacred Spaces
February 14 - March 15 2013
Kim Foster Gallery 529 West 20th Street, NY
Statement: I am interested in the transformative power of sacred architectural space and the experience of being there - moving through it, using it, all senses informed, opened up, and paying attention - acutely of the present. It is a visceral, physical experience, we are aware of phenomenon – our body senses and transforms a physical space, an object, into a heightened subjective experience. You are within a great work, an empowered space.
I am interested in the resonance of the lives lived within its walls. I am interested in the aspirations that have been realized in the construction of these buildings as well as the aspirations of its users – to imagine the unimaginable, to witness the sacred.
My work attempts to deconstruct the form and mass of empowered architectural space into a perception of light, time and movement in pursuit of its genius loci – its sacred sense of place and possibility.
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recent: Being There
New Work 2010 – 2012
212 Gallery. Aspen. Summer 2012
This work focuses on the discovery of the interaction between architecture and experience.
It attempts to move beyond the conventional definition of architecture as a visual art, which exists first in the imagination, then in design documents, then as bricks and mortar, and finally photographed like fashion from it’s most attractive angle, to be celebrated in magazines. And while this is the process of creating architecture, it is only its birth, not its purpose.
Architecture exists to accommodate and even elevate the human experience, and in the case of sacred and civic spaces – a place for our most compelling events.
Architecture at its most inspired is theater – visual at first, but as we move through it, drawing on all our other senses – music and movement, distorting our sense of time and allowing us to transcend the bricks and mortar of architecture as it shares its history and purpose and allows us to experience a subjective meaning. It’s where we go to celebrate, to wonder at the possible, and glimpse the impossible.
I attempt to capture the extended moment of the interaction between architectural space and human experience – where the subject and the object collide, where they dance and our thoughts recede and we are astonished.
This work is the opposite of still photography, not only are the images active, the process is active as well. I am constantly adjusting shutter speed, aperture, focus, and focal length – often these adjustments are made during long exposures. I am seldom standing still. I move through the space, experiencing the space – the camera my companion. The work is minimally cropped with no post-production manipulation of images.
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SUBLIMATION
Active and Moving Pictures=
New Work 2010 - 2011
212 Gallery. Aspen. Summer 2011
This work is a pairing of short films and the photographs that are used as source material for the films. The work begins with sculptures or constructions that I make and then photograph (active pictures). These images are then used to create short films (moving pictures). This process fosters a transformation from the object to the ephemeral – from the physicality of three dimensions to an experience of light, time, and movement. The object is transformed to a subjective experience.
I want materials and media to be the opposite of what they are supposed to be. I want sculpture to move – to change. I want photo-unrealism. I want photographs that move – that change. I want to create still life’s that aren’t still. I want light not to illuminate objects but for objects to illuminate light. I don’t want to stop time in the traditional photographic sense, I want to see time, I want to see time change. I want to witness the transformative.
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Michael Lipkin is an architect, photographer, sculptor, video artist and dj. With this collection he brings his understanding of composition (sculpture), light and choreography (architecture), and time and movement (music) to create a unique body of work and offer a glimpse of a layered process that celebrates his personal obsession with an interaction between the arts and with a balance between control, experimentation, and discovery. He relishes his ability to surprise himself
Michael Lipkin received his undergraduate degree in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Architecture degree from Yale. He is represented by the 212 Gallery in Aspen and the Kim Foster Gallery in New York.
michael lipkin michaelblipkin@gmail.com 970.309.1114