ROBIN RHODE
2008
Dimensions variable
Edition 2/3 (+ 2 A.P.)
Inv. Nr. 89
Installation view: Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Photo: Roger Wooldridge – Courtesy the artist & Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York
Born in 1976 in Cape Town, South Africa
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Since the end of the nineties, Robin Rhode combines large-scale charcoal drawings with performances that activate his designs, often performed on the streets and dealing with everyday actions. He has been documenting this work, which he calls “performative drawings”, by taking still photographs that he then later gathers together into halting video animations that have the texture of flip books. The video installation Kite (2008) is composed of a printed picture of the artist’s hands on one wall and a kite-shaped video projection of trees flying by rapidly on the perpendicular wall. A simple string ties one wall to the other, from the hands to the kite. This delicate and poetic installation staging childhood memories of kite flying and the joyful sensation of looking up at trees on a sunny day from a moving car turns to a mood of nostalgia and loss when the projection speeds up, the trees blur and turn into a rain shower. The movie was shot in New Orleans in 2008 and recalls the floods and sudden tragedy of the hurricane Katrina.