Artistic
Statement By Kalman Spelletich
June 1998
photo: Nicole Rosenthal
I make robots and machines to exemplify the incredible
expressive power of technology. With brute force and fluid beauty their
actions poetically symbolize mans struggles and triumphs. I use
technology for its potential to evolve and transform materials and
concepts. We integrate technology, storytelling and performance. The
performances are constantly exploring the boundaries between the
audience and performers. No two performances are the same. I hope for
the audience to look at machines, robots and technology anew. Some of
The work explores the dark side of mankind, very much like the
Frankenstein theory of the manmade beast turning on him, or a giant
multiconglomerate turning on man and the environment. Some of it is
about the inner self and transcendence. The machines are representative
of our own souls, our own potential and lack thereof. In the end I see myself as a mad scientist/inventor. As a
post-industrial folk artist. Nothing matters but art. Just art. Life
isn't separate from art. This is not about money or recognition. My
work isn¹t cynical. It is about life and laughter, survival,
struggle, pain, triumph, endurance, transcendance. It is about the
magic of technology. The miracle of somthing that moves. Somthing that
has a life of it's own. Technology will either save us or kill us. Man
made it. if he can do this he can save the world. it is all from the
human spirit and the spirit is of course infinitely wise and good and
bad. That potential is reflected in the work. If there is a
jesus/Allah/Buddah/Mohammed s/he is inside all of us and that life can
be expressed through work. I
guide audience members from machine to machine, telling a story about
each one, why I built it, how I built it, what it does for me and what
I want it to do for them. They are allowed to explore and interact with
each one. The machines prepare food, break bricks, make love, perform
music and fight. There is a suicide chair, a 3-headed serberus dog to
fend off evil spirits, a wing flapping knife weilding guardian angel,
courtship machines,and a self loathing head punching defeated man.
Their sounds and voices are electronically amplified and processed.
Many of the pieces incorporate fire. I have used fire as a
landscape cleanser, metaphor for male ejaculate, as a river of fire to
follow or cross, a waterfall of fire, as a salute to the day, as bad
breath from Rush Limbaugh, trees armed with flamethrowers, underwater
seamonsters spitting fire from watery depths, flaming robots fucking,
fighting and lovemaking, a bride carrying her own torch, Serberus the
three headed dog with each head spitting fire, a pope figure blessing
his flock with flaming arms, a molotov cocktail thrower for the
oppressed worker, a 20 ft. pair of Icarus wings flapping in a room full
of fire, fire as a homage to the Futurists and technology, a figure on
fire hurling itself into a tub of water and jumping back out still
aflame as a baptism by fire or born again through a trial, as man
defecating into the air or pissin in the wind. Thus it becomes more
than just a fire. I do art to change peoples lives.to change my life, to
change the world. To create some kind of self knowledge. To connect
myself to the fundamental world. To create a model of how to be in the
world. To reach for a higher plane., somthing beyond mere words or
images. To innitiate some kind of change or realization, To make work
that is true and that is connected to my inner self. To make
connections with people. To deepen the sense of what it means to be
human. To be more human.