An air compressor squeezing air into a tube, as featured in Gill Baldwin’s (1992) kinetic sculpture Moment/um (2023), is not exactly what you would call human. But because of the writhing movements and unpredictable rhythm of the tube snaking across the floor, you can’t help feeling somewhat compassionate towards it. As if the air compressor has literally breathed life into the tube. Exactly that tension, between life and technology, is a recurring theme in Baldwin’s multidisciplinary work. She is interested in the relationship between humanity and technology and how it is subject to constant change. This raises the question whether human values and emotions will be compromised when technology and artificiality finally gain the upper hand. Who or what will eventually take control and therefore also seize power?
Baldwin was educated as a designer and interior architect. From there she developed as an artist who, in her work, also researches how digital technologies can affect our experience of the surroundings. In some of her earlier kinetic sculptures she mimicked nature, for instance with a constantly ‘streaming’ waterfall based on stock photographs, or reedbeds mechanically waving up and down. Baldwin’s works allude to future scenarios, but more importantly invite the viewer to contemplate these.
Text: Esther Darley
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang