The split into black and white gives us a point of reference in a here and now characterised by the uncertainty of the fleeting moment. No colour represents this diversity more than grey. It stands for the multitude of facets of our life and inspires us to keep exploring new perspectives. After all, nothing is either black or white.
The richness of facets embedded in grey is reflected in the dial of the Lange 31 by A. Lange & Söhne: depending on the incident light, it mesmerises the observer with ever-new shades of grey. It inspired British artist Sebastian Kite to get to the bottom of this ‘achromatic colour’ and its countless nuances that can never be fully deciphered by the human eye.
Beneath the dial of the white-gold Lange 31 lies the miniature universe of the complicated 406-part movement that stands out not only by virtue of its lavish finish but also with extraordinary technology. The Lange 31 was the first mechanical wristwatch with a power reserve of 31 days. Its patented constant-force escapement assures that a uniform amount of energy is delivered to the oscillator every ten seconds; this keeps the watch running very accurately for an entire month. ‘Nothing beats the accuracy of this watch. Therefore, I looked for another approach to interpret it.’
Ultimately, Sebastian Kite took his inspiration from the grey shade of the Lange 31 dial. To highlight this hue in all of its different aspects, he built a three-dimensional installation with metal frames, steel cables and mirror foils.
Sebastian Kite chose the 16 mm cinematic film format as the medium for his exploration of grey. ‘The Lange 31 is powered by two springs, each with an incredible length of 1.85 metres. To pay tribute to this technical feat, I decided to work with a spring-wound Bolex camera.’ For Sebastian Kite, this camera was the ideal tool for visualising the spectrum of possible grey shades. To achieve the goal, the artist first had to break out of his habitual surroundings. He travelled to Cornwall and found the ideal backdrop for a moving picture inspection there. It was an encounter with a fissured and gruff landscape interspersed with surreal ruins reminiscent of bygone epochs.
By streaming the cinematic images into a spatial installation, the artist accessed another way to visualise his intensive involvement with the theme. Now, positive and negative reflections interact with mirrored moving pictures to produce ever-new images and nuances.
Landscape structures become fascinating surfaces. Overlapping reflections and projections transform ruins into abstract geometric shapes with countless grey spectra. At this point, Sebastian Kite’s installation plays with the power of cultural legacies. What do we expect to see? And what do we actually see? A visual experience that gently escorts us outside habitual patterns of perception and leaves us inspired. ‘Fortuitous coincidences show us the grey zones.’ The game of serendipity is emulated by the installation as well: depending on the observer’s perspective, the brightness of the projections changes, making them either permeable or impenetrable. This precise and complex artistry comes alive in random moments.
By projecting the totality of impressions gathered outdoors into the inside of his exhibition and then reflecting, distorting and fusing them with the Lange 31, Sebastian Kite blended the multitude of variations and hues that lie between black and white into a vision of timeless aesthetics.
In each moment of our life, the past meets the future and enigma confronts clarity. ‘Let us be fearless in this encounter and boldly contemplate all facets, all nuances.’
