Sandra Landolt
m o n o m a n i a
Kinetic Sculpture & Video Works

Exhibition: 15 March to 2 April 2006

Landolt is an inventor of witty new functions for commonplace, discarded objects. Inspired by her compatriot the kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely, she uses simple mechanics (motors, circuits and lights) to breathe new life into letterboxes, suit cases, oil drums, toys and coo-coo clocks giving them noisy, monotonous activities to perform.

These clever art pieces become metaphors for pathological patterns of human behaviour. Undeterred by constant disappointment each work obsesses over simple desires or fears with which we are all too familiar – the fear of being watched, the desire to connect with a loved one, the dream of being able to fly.

In De-Endeavour a neglected toy car transforms its windscreen wipers into wings in an attempt to increase its velocity; resulting in a repetitious rocking back and forth. In Der kleine traum vom fliegen (A little dream of flying) a video monitor shows us a small child using a trampoline to become airborne; his flight seems hopeless as he is trapped inside an oil drum - this work was chosen as the 3D Winner for the 2005 Willoughby Art Prize.

Landolt states: “The sculptures all show a feeling of despair, using daily, banal objects in a humorous context adding an ironic social comment to it.”

Like her sculpture, Landolt’s new video works are playful, poetic and slightly absurd. In Tragic Hero a tiny wind-up Christmas tree frenetically pursues a pretty, doe-eyed doll who ignores his increasingly obscene advances. (She is later whisked further out of his grasp by a flying pig.)

Landolt's next project will be as an artist in residence with the Art Exchange program in Broken Hill where she will endeavour to reanimate an expired full size Cessna jet aeroplane.

About the Artist

Sandra Landolt was born 1969 in Basel Switzerland. She received her MFA Sculpture in 2005 at UNSW. Landolt's next project will be as an artist in residence with the Art Exchange program in Broken Hill where she will endeavour to reanimate an expired full size Cessna jet aeroplane.

Monomania opens Wednesday 15 March from 6-8pm, and the exhibition will run to the 2 April 2006.