“I deal with spatial processes. The only thing that is out of the question for me is expressing the space by putting something down and saying that it is now an object in the room. That doesn’t work anymore today.”
—Sebastian Hempel
Sebastian Hempel is interested in what is at rest and can be subsequently set in motion, exemplified by his kinetic, optical and acoustic sequences, either solo or concerted, that illustrate the dimensions of space, time and movement. By focusing on different states of motion, both formally and aesthetically, Hempel directly influences our sensory perceptions and experience of space. Invariably, the viewer is drawn physically into the phenomenon of movement that permeates his installation work, including rotating LEDs and moving wall pictures in which perception is dependent on time.
Hempel engages with the philosophical claim that perception means deception, referencing debates of the world as a perceived or imagined entity, as well as on the biochemical relationships between eye and brain, or between sensory perception and consciousness. Hempel's engagement with the concepts of perception and deception in aesthetic experience are demonstrated through the wall piece RGB (Rot-Gelb-Blau) (RYB (red-yellow-blue)). The stationary colors wedges of red, yellow, and blue merge together through rotation to form the entire spectrum of colors; in effect, the visualization of different images and spatial levels, when overlapped and rotated, lead to a constantly changing visual impression.
