bitforms gallery

Tim Knowles and Pe Lang + Zimoun
Unpredictable Forms of Sound and Motion
United States premiere of the Tim Knowles Walk series
New York debut of Pe Lang + Zimoun
Unpredictable Forms of Sound and Motion engages creative contemporary perspectives on automated systems, performance, and sculpture. Curated by Steve Sacks.

January 24, 2009 – March 7, 2009

bitforms gallery is pleased to announce its first exhibition with artists Tim Knowles (b. 1969, United Kingdom) and duo Pe Lang (b. 1974, Switzerland) and Zimoun (b. 1977, Switzerland). With several works making their international premiere, three Untitled Sound Objects by Pe Lang + Zimoun will be part of the exhibit, along with photography, video and sculpture from the Tim Knowles “Walk” series.

Attracted to natural materials such as trees, moonlight, water, and geo-data, artist Tim Knowles uses cameras and drawing to reveal the hidden, or otherwise unnoticed motion of objects. For example, Knowles’ Postal Drawings are created en route from the artist’s studio to its final destination and capture the commonplace movements within a global tide of transfer points. Likewise exploring the interlaced spaces of earthwork, landscape and Fluxus systems, his works from the Windwalks and Nightwalks series engage the artist’s capricious wanderings.

Nightwalk-Valley of Rocks is a series of illuminated walks that Knowles created in Devon during a new moon and captured using an extended exposure photograph. Over a period of about one hour in these pieces, the artist walks away from a tripod-mounted camera while carrying very powerful flashlights illuminating his path along a rocky ridge in the darkness. Invoking Plato’s allegory of the cave, a pathway of ghostly travelers shines inside an electrified landscape.

Knowles’ Windwalk-5 walks from Charing Cross is a sequence of performances guided solely by the wind. Playfully exploring drawing and narrative, the artist used a helmet-mounted wind vane for direction and traced his steps with a GPS device. Originating from the geographic center of London in this piece, nocturnal city life is revealed through video documentation. Examining the human mark and control of territory, the piece takes a sharp absurdist jab at the effectiveness of modern tools in time of conflict. Executed in the early hours of the morning and guided by a set of self-authored rules, unpredictable events unfold and Knowles’ route becomes increasingly chaotic and indecisive. Whirling currents bouncing off buildings lead the artist into virtual wind cul-de-sacs of littered plastic bags and swirling leaves with no escape until the wind once again changes its direction.

Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared repetitive systems, the sculptures of Pe Lang + Zimoun incorporate commonplace industrial objects. Pieces in their Untitled Sound Objects series transform constructed acoustic and electrical noises into reverberating ambient hums that resemble natural systems. Visually activated by a cyclical form that is entirely composed of manufactured materials, Untitled Sound Objects – 100 Prepared DC Motors and Chains in Wooden Type Cases aurally resonates in way that is similar to rushing water, rain or a gust of wind through a long tunnel. Also affixed to the gallery wall, Untitled Sound Objects – 400 Prepared Vibration Motors in Wooden Type Cases features a white minimalist grid that contain spinning metal and rubber components. A third sculpture, Untitled Sound Objects – 49 Prepared Vibration Motors generates a subtly shifting buzz of electrical feedback from bobbling black nubs at the ends of red and blue dangling wires.

For more information please visit:
http://bitforms.com
http://www.timknowles.com
http://www.untitled-sound-objects.ch/

Press Release