A KINETIC art exhibition is about to launch in Kendal this month.

The Cross Lane Projects will reopen this month with an exhibition by Dean Kenning, winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2020/21.

Dean Kenning is known for his kinetic and sound sculptures, as well as videos and diagrams.

His work is produced through hands-on material and process-based experimentation, and in the spirit of DIY problem solving.

Kenning has used his lockdown this time to extend the possibilities for his kinetic sculptural practice. 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 - the effect is more ‘animalistic’ than ‘robotic’ as the focus remains on the aesthetics of movement, particularly nervous or compulsive movement.

He said: “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.”

The ‘crawlers’ will be shown alongside kinetic ‘plant’ sculptures (or ‘psychobotanicals’). Flaccid, silicone arms, or branches, gyrate spasmodically, dance or battle each other on top of Styrofoam plinths. They are the flora to the crawling fauna, inhabiting the milieu of the gallery space.

The kinetic sculptures are accompanied by colourful diagrams: prints, paintings, and a large chalk drawing. They are thinking tools, which set out to explore natural, philosophical, and artistic objects – the way they operate, grow and acquire meaning – by drawing analogies and by describing the various ways in which the elements which make them up connect.

The crawling works have evolved in close collaboration with creative computing educator and coder Llewelyn Fernandes and maintain a determinedly analogue aspect as new forms, functions and materials are developed in a continuous feedback process of trial-and-error production. In line with Kenning’s previous work, the necessity of getting kinetic sculptures to ‘work’ (and work consistently) forces and enables the artist to subordinate formal-compositional judgement, relinquish absolute authorial control and open the work up to contingency.

For information visit https://www.crosslaneprojects.com.