Matrix and Copy, Projection, and Change in immersive works by Friedhard Kiekeben.
Since the early 1990s the artist created a number of ongoing series of works that are based on a primary visual experience (more like a matrix or a vibration than a traditional picture) that has the potential to adapt and change throughout time and space.
‘Friction’, ‘Crystal’, ‘Loop/Flow’, Transit’, ‘Black White and Grey’, ‘Yun’, or ‘Quantum Ice’
For instance ‘Friction’ is a series of immersive, abstract works that spans over three decades of development and manifestation as Wall Installations, Etched Metal Sculpture, Paintings, Printmaking works, and various Site Specific Interventions that filled gallery spaces in the UK, Europe, and the US.
The Friction series was created in 1994 on a Macintosh computer. Gestural pixel paintings (drawn with digital stylus) were the source for 9 sequential modules that in their addition create an immersive visual experience for the viewer, by animating a space through ondulating optical effects in black and white.
From the outset the Friction series was designed as a kind of primary matrix that could be applied to new site specific locations and a variety of materials over longer periods of time. For instance a new version shown at the Columbus Art Center in Ohio in 2018, installed on 16 cast iron columns as part of ‘TechnoMeme’, can be seen being in a dialogue with wall drawings first shown in Frankfurt and Cologne in 1996. Back then, computers emerged as a mass medium and as a possible art form. Today, the digital is ubiquitous to human experience.
Other series of installation works that manifest in multiple versions and various permutations over time include ‘Crystal’, ‘Loop/Flow’, Transit’, and ‘Quantum Ice’. All of these projects contain an unchanging visual experience (a matrix) as well as ever changing shapes, colors, and contexts that arise anew and fresh every time a project is perceived by viewers at a new time and place.