MÁQUINA TOTAL
CHRISTIAAN ZWANIKKEN
Christiaan Zwanikken’s works are kinetic objects – hybrid machines that appear to have a life of their own. One example is a series of oversized insect wings that form a rotor and appear to squabble in frantic rhythms over their flight path. Yet they are unable to move from their spot because they are merely components of an electromagnetic apparatus. Or a jointed arm that laboriously retrieves some pink powder from a tin and slaps it onto a blackboard in exactly the same spot every time. Christiaan Zwanikken observes the debate over whether machines have a soul from a distance. The machines he constructs are imbued with a spirit. This is not brought about by the technology itself, but by the viewer, who cannot help but regard these works as living beings.
