Dynamic VHS Tape Installations by Zilvinas Kempinas.

Well isn’t this just a little bit nuts? I am in awe of Lithuanian-born and New York-based artist Žilvinas Kempinas. His installation “Tube” (2008) involved a whole bunch of VHS tapes (remember those?) and electric fans. How the hell did he manage to get all the pieces of tape so perfectly stretched and equally spaced? The OCD part of me is most impressed! This installation has an incredibly delicate and etherial quality – the tape transforms from thin black lines to virtually disappearing in front of your eyes. Pure visual magic.

“I am attracted to things that are capable of transcending their own banality and materiality to become something else, something more. I like the way that videotape is simultaneously delicate and durable, since it’s meant to last.”

“Videotape is made to present the world in color, but it appears purely black. It’s supposed to be this safe container of the past, but it is destined to vanish like a dinosaur, to become obsolete, pushed away by new technologies.”

It leaves me wondering where Mr Kempinas managed to find so much VHS tape for this project? Has he been collecting tapes from Blockbuster for years? Was he notorious for never returning movies on time and racking up massive late fees?

[Images via Triangulation Blog.]