“[…] At Elias Crespin’ shows, viewers gather in silence and contemplate the mesmerizing movements of unexpected shapes that flow and float and, dancing in space, come to embody poetry. Dance and poetry define the work of the Venezuelan artist. He makes space his own and “paints signs in the air” with geometric reminiscences – lines, surfaces, volumes, parts of structures suspended from the ceiling – that create worlds, seize our gaze, and liberate our minds. […]
Always unique and unfailingly suggestive, Crespin’s electrokinetic sculptures are rooted, in turn, on the aesthetics of movement and the principle of equilibrium. But, unlike Marcel Duchamp’s bicycle (the first work of kinetic art, as well as the first ready-made?), Naúm Gabo’s machine-like sculptures with electric mechanisms, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s shadow projections, Alexander Calder’s mobiles pushed by the breeze, or Jesús Soto’s works – which require the viewer’s movement as well – the mechanisms behind Crespin’s works are animated by electronic systems (hardware) controlled by computer technology (software) designed by the artist himself. […]
Undoubtedly, the appearance of simplicity in Crespin’s electrokinetic sculptures is a component of their appeal. But nothing is simple behind those oscillations achieved through the use of a technology that, interestingly, instead of generating cold rationalizations offers surprising commotions that result in sensations and feelings. Clearly, Crespin’s knowledge and use of technological developments is just a means for the unveiling of poetry. Sitting at his monitor, the artist works assiduously to create his sculptures, perhaps imagining an order to confront the untidiness and anarchy of life, to control the respiration of shapes that, literally, hang by a thread and by Crespin’s creativity in order to receive new life. The results of his extensive investigations are not automatic. Who knows how many trials and errors lie behind his gracile, well-constructed works.”
Victoria Verlichak, Geometric Choreographies
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue. Text first published in ArtNexus, 78, 2010
Das Kleine Museum – Kultur auf der Peunt
Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst
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