14th Media Arts Biennial of Chile

“Liquid Relations, Listening Back in Time” stands as site-specific piece, created during the socio-political upheaval in Chile, relates to Kalsmose’s overall fascination with the constitution of the human situation in relation to the world and happenings surrounding us. Kalmose has integrated physical remains, found objects, and metals from the demonstrations, demolished busses and destroyed vehicles.

“Liquid Relations, Listening Back in Time” conveys themes of personal identity and the connections between the self and others, in particularly family members. The anthropomorphic forms– iron figures or family members of different heights and shapes, arranged concentrically above curved metal and wooden floor pieces- imitate the course of our planets, or Saturn’s rings. The idea of a cosmos built upon harmony and proportions is literalized at the focal point of the work with a small speaker emitting sounds from radio and plasma waves recorded by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft near Saturn's rings. Meteor stones underpin the cosmic connection while prolonging some of the metal curves like dots, alluding to infinity. “Liquid Relations, Listening Back in Time” is a symbol of a cosmic unity encouraging the viewer to see things from other perspectives and within a larger context and timeframe where everything is interconnected. This work is the result of years of investigations into fields of materiality, identity formation, and the relational interconnectedness of everything that lives. Kalsmose is interested in how we understand our own complex mind, our relationship to ‘the other’ whether that be other objects or other human beings, or in a broader sense, cosmos. The incorporated components evoke a circular form – and thus becomes an emblem of cosmic ‘unity’. In relation to the current situation in Chile, the work encourages the viewer to see things from other perspectives–in a larger context and timeframe in a circular cosmos, where everything is interconnected.

Continuously working in an interdisciplinary field of art and science and driven by intuitive sensations, Kalsmose seeks to confirm her art scientifically, thus exquisitely intertwining into her work perception of the self with the science of our universe. Kalsmose’s works are a contribution to a broad theoretical research field where anthropocentrism and human essentialism are reevaluated. The immanent quality of every single material is underlined in her installations as she creates a space for her theories of circularity and connectedness through the language of art. Kalsmose’s artworks provoke a dialogue and encourage the viewers to analyze what is outside and inside ourselves. The artist invites the viewer to partake in that consideration by allowing what is not physical to occupy a physical space; the installation’s concepts exist just as much as the viewer experiencing them.