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Let's go fly a kite

For several years, I have had a lot of thoughts about kites and kite flying. 

I have wanted to organize a kite exhibition for a long time, inviting artists to design and create their own kites, and then flying them all and holding an exhibition in the sky.  The larger idea behind this is to organize a three-part exhibition: on land, at sea, and in the air. But that is a conversation for another time. 

 

Throughout history, there have been some famous kite flyers, such as Benjamin Franklin and his lightning experiment, where he proved that lightning is a form of electricity and that there are positive and negative charges.  Kites were also used for training during WWII under the direction of Paul Gaber. An enemy airplane was painted  on them and they were used as target practice. Kites inspired the Wright brothers in the early designs of their first airplanes. The list goes on. 

 

"We haven't found the limit of what a kite can do," says Jim Sayce, Vice President of the World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Washington. 

 

"It's all based on the fact that your hand holds the rope and attaches it to the ground, and that has something very old and emotional in the modern world." 

 

The presented work is a video I made in South Korea titled "Kite Accident Park." Asia is the birthplace of kite art and it 

is still very much ingrained in young and old as an active pursuit. The video presents kites that have gotten stuck in surrounding trees,

which in turn has a very sad aspect. I can imagine the feeling of the magic that comes with launching a kite into the air, 

and then the frustration and devastation of it crashing and getting stuck in those cursed trees. 

Another part of the project is the model of my very first kite design, which is inspired by Carl Sagan's solar sails and is titled

 "The Carl Sagan Experience."

Solar sails are a method of propulsion for spacecraft that uses radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. 

In other words, it's like a very large kite in space. It can serve as an example for myself to eventually realize the kite exhibition.

Furthermore, I have converted the model into a 1:1 scale and created a test model to test if it can actually fly.

 "The Carl Sagan Experience."

2023

scalemodel: 

52 × 29 × 12 cm

Concrete, iron, metallic foil, tape, cotton

1:1

95x95x40 cm

wood, Nylon, cotton, steel

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