"This summer, I intend to create a kinetic sculpture resembling a tornado, symbolizing the devastating changes that threaten to destroy what we love," says one of the stars of this year's Vilnius Light Festival, the famous British light artist and innovator Paul', about his plans to implement the first environmentally inspired work and the challenges. Friedlander, whose work has been mesmerizing fans of light art all over the world for several decades.
On January 24–26, at the Energy and Technology Museum in Vilnius, Paul Friedlander, who combines science, art, and technology in his work, will present his famous kinetic light sculptures - a performance of chromatic waves balancing between realism and magic, the installation "Hand of the Galaxy".
Mr. Friedlander's undulating sculptures are born in white light by the rapid rotation of a taut rope. The vibrating string becomes invisible, but the light reflected from it becomes visible. The colors change and rotate to form double spirals. Light dances and vibrates to create the spectrums of color that turn science into art.
The spectrum of colors created using special light sources and rotating, constantly changing spatial forms is the main focus of the artist's work. Dynamic sculptures, which look like breathing light, not only capture the gaze and intrigue, but also invite us to reflect on the essence of light, to look deeper into the nature of the universe.
Father of two children and grandfather of five grandchildren, light artist Paul Friedlander is a unique personality. In his youth, he first studied physics and mathematics, and then majored in fine arts. He worked for a while in the theater as a lighting designer and scenographer, specialized in avant-garde music, but for the past few decades, never losing his love for science, he has been passionately creating kinetic art.
His impressive light sculptures are based on principles of mathematics and physics, such as chaos theory, wave dynamics and quantum mechanics, but the works do not appear academic - they appeal on an emotional and aesthetic level.
"My work is a way to show the world how mysterious and magical light is. I want people to feel her as a living being," says Paul Friedlander.
Constantly experimenting and boldly pushing the boundaries of comfort, Mr. Friedlander's curiosity and desire to explore and understand the mysteries of the world is simply inspiring. The artist's colorful biography reveals the roots of his great artistic imagination and technical ingenuity.
His earliest childhood memory is the launch of the first artificial earth satellite, which he learned about on television news. Paul Friedlander is a child of the space age, a dreamer who was so fascinated by space that he spent his time building spaceships and yearning to travel alone to explore the universe.
"Luckily for me, my loving parents accepted my quirks, such as insisting on not throwing away broken toys and other items because I used them in my games. I was an instinctive constructivist and recycler,” says Mr. Friedlander, who was constantly encouraged to attend exhibitions and pursue his interests by his artist mother and Cambridge University mathematician father.
A visit to London's Hayward Gallery in 1970. made a life-changing impression on the young man at the kinetic exhibition. He was most impressed by the works of cybernetic artists Nicolas Schöffer (1912) and Wen-Ying Tsai (1928). Mr. Friedlander was greatly influenced by his personal teacher, physicist and quantum mechanics expert Sir Anthony Leggett, who later received the Nobel Prize for his work on superfluids.
Deeply immersed in kinetic art with all his head and heart, the science-inspired artist first patiently experimented with small sculptures, which, over the years, with the technical improvement of the design, grew from the size of a desktop to monumental works more than 10 meters high. During the creative processes in 1983 he made an important discovery about the chaotic properties of a spinning string and invented chromastrobe light, which changes color faster than the eye can see.
Since 1998, Mr. Friedlander has exhibited his unique light sculptures around the world at various art and science museums and festivals, and is invited to give lectures, mostly about his creations and inventions.
The first version of the large-scale installation "Hand of the Galaxy", which we will have the opportunity to see in Vilnius, was shown in 2014. at the Lumina light festival in Cascais, Portugal. Over the past decade, the much improved, even brighter and more interesting work has been exhibited in more than 20 countries: Portugal, Bahrain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, North Macedonia, Estonia, France, etc. in 2024 in November, the installation graced the opening of the Astronomy Discovery Center at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona (JAV). Also at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in New Mexico (USA), the artist took part in an interdisciplinary meeting that brought together various experts in their field: physicists, mathematicians, neuroscientists, artists and art historians, which addressed a long-term challenge as old as art itself - that of movement and representation of the flow of time in a static medium.
Mr. Friedlander, who has enjoyed following the beaten path and, as he puts it, "making waves" since he was a child, believes that we should constantly expand our understanding of what art is because, he says, some of the best works of art is on the verge of unconsciousness. The artist also believes that art and science can serve each other and create new forms of knowledge and inspiration.
When asked what happiness is to him, the artist replies: "Continuing to do what I do, creating art, and finding new challenges to overcome."
The Vilnius Light Festival, dedicated to the city's birthday, is an opportunity to see international works of light art, and Paul Friedlander's masterpieces, which are not only a beauty for the eyes, but also a thought-provoking dialogue with the audience, will undoubtedly be on January 24-26. will become one of the most vivid experiences of the festival.
