1971 born in Dresden
1987-1990 apprenticeship of sculptor in Dresden
1993-1998 study of sculpture on the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden
1998-2000 further studies at prof. Ursula Sax on the HfBK and on the Slade School of Fine Art London
1998 Dorintprice Stipendium der Deutschen Studienstiftung
1999 Auslandsstipendium London
2000 Robert-Sterl-Price
2001 Künstlerstipendium Willinghausen 1. price by competition by Max Planck Institutes
2005 public art commission at TU Dresden
2006 1. DREWAG Prize for Contemporary Art
2007 1. prize Gestaltungswettbewerb, Bahnunterführung Deutsche Bahn
2008 1. prize Wettbewerb Kunst-am-Bau, Hochschule Mittweida (FH) (Realisierung)
20091. Preis Wettbewerb Kunst am Bau, Vitzthum Gymnasium, Dresden (Realisierung)
solo exhibitions (selection):
2009 »PLAYBOY«, Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland; »Überm Sofa«, galerie baer, Dresden, Germany
2008 »2 aus...Dresden« (with Stefan Lenke), Kunstverein Kassel, Germany
2007 »Local Movement« galerie baer, Dresden, Germany
2006 »Beziehungskiste«, öffentlicher Raum, Stadtzentrum Dresden, Germany; »Strom« Städtische Galerie, Dresden, Germany
2005 »Transmission« Städtische Galerie Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
2004 »Optokoppler« galerie baer, Dresden, Germany
2002 Kunstsammlungen Gera, Germany
2001 Künstlerstipendum Willinghausen, Germany (C)
2000 »The business of art«, ATP-gallery, London, Great Britain; »Zwielicht«, Robert-Sterl-Haus, Naundorf, Germany
participations (selection):
2008 »Heppo Steppuhn und Geisselolt Blodig« Neuer Sächsischer Kunstverein, Dresden, Germany; »Die Zahl, der Zufall, das Spiel« Kunstverein Rügen, Germany; »Good Vibrations« Altana-Galerie, Dresden, Germany; »Dimensionen«, Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland; »ad absurdum«, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn, Germany
2007 »Perplex« Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany; »New Generation«, Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland; »Die Elektrifizierung der Gehirne« Motorenhalle, Dresden, Germany;
2006 »Rotorelief«, Stadt der Wissenschaften im Dresdner Schloß, Germany, »Bewegung«, Galerie Kasten, Mannheim, Germany; »Ballkünstler« Museum für Bildende Künste, Leipzig, Germany (C); »Baumgruppe«, artproject Landesgartenschau Oschatz, Germany
2005 »profile« galerie baer, Dresden, Germany; »Lüster«, Städtische Galerie Dresden, Germany; »Streiflichter« Ankäufe des Kunstfonds Sachsen Städtisches Museum Zwickau, Germany
2004 »Eiland in Wien« institute francais, Wien, Austria; »potentiale«, Projektgalerie des BBK, Leipzig, Germany
2003 »profiler«, galerie baer, Dresden, Germany; »Hivernale«, Palais im Großen Garten, Dresden, Germany
2002 »Split Points«, Nationalgallery Prague, Czech Republic (C)
2001 »success«, Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany (C)
With his view of moving objects, aesthetic as well as formal, Sebastian Hempel has a direct influence on the spacial perception and sensory experience of the viewer. Luminous, rotating diodes and a moving and constantly changing mural can be experienced at “Profiler”.
Sebastian Hempel
Though his work substantially deals with the phenomena of
light, space and time, velocity and sound, perception and
motility, it is in the manipulative investigations born of an
»experimental play« with these issues that the essence of
Hempel’s work resides. Therefore the nature of curiosity,
problems to be solved, puzzlement and subsequent dicovery,
are integrated into his sculptural and spatial undertakings
from the very beginning, »in my opinion, the study of
?ne arts exists for the purpose of ?nding out what your
interests are.«
But to mention play inevitably alludes to pleasure and fun,
to the artist’s optical games as well as the spatial actions
he provokes, and it is at this secondary level that we ?nd
both humour and wit are applied. His developing of human
sensory experiences of either of an optical or aural nature,
mediated though a motile and spatial impulse, is an omnipresent
feature found within all his sculptural works and
installations. While kinetic art has had a long development
history throughout the twentieth century, driven by the twin
characteristics phenomenological perception and/or the
dynamics of movement, this should not blind us to the fact
that increasingly revolutionary models of optics still remain
fundamental to our developmental way of seeing. Visual
stimulation, optical deception and its meaning(s), arguably still shapes our engagement with the world. This remains
true whether it takes the everyday from of special effects in
?lm, most often an illusionary manipulation where the viewer
is stimulated in a passive state, or in the more direct or
participatory pleasure experienced in the kinetic-spatial works
of Sebastian Hempel.
That which is static but subsequently moved, or conversely
expressed, how different forms of movement trigger things
from their static state, has always been pursued by Sebastian
Hempel. Hence the work physically moves the viewer and
incorporates them into the phenomenal process (they remain
physically still but are moved), as against the detached optical
processes of a viewer merely observing an effect.
Objects exist in space but their experience consists in and
through time. The application of small hidden motors is a
common practice with Hempel (motors exist in space but
they operate through time) and can take many forms sometimes
being turned to quite conceptual effects. However,
rather than considering the accelerated aspects of velocity
and motorisation, Hempel is more concerned with the way
small motors can be varied and applied in terms of their
speed and settings. It is less a question of the exhilaration of
speed, and more a question as to how variable speed effects
are able to change our perception.
The role of sound and light in both optical and physical
disorientation, that is to say the creation of sensory confusion,
has always interested Hempel. Hence sound is often incorporated to challenge the primary status given to the
visual within the processes of perception. Sound challenges
that which is seen and presents a truer sense of natural
simultaneity of the senses at work in our experiencing of the
world. Not surprisingly it is also linked to colour, for as has
been frequently observed colour can only exist in light – no
light equals no colour, and an excess of light leads all colour
into the void of whiteness. Thus Hempel’s recent works have
shown a marked propensity towards the mastery of light and
colour.
What this supposes as has become increasingly evident in
Hempel’s work, is that he has mastered and developed the
three-dimensional concerns of space, but allied them to the
sensory phenomena of light, time and perception. Hence
wall, ?oor and ceiling are all as one in the mind of Hempel,
and the advances he has made in terms of technical accomplishment
is closely linked to an increasing understanding of
the complexity of both installation and presentation.
Mark Gisbourne