CLEVER, UNEXPECTED, FULL OF MOVEMENT AND SOUND — THE BRITISH ARTIST'S WORK IS ALL ABOUT CREATING HARMONY

Cathy Ward, brutjournal’s London-based artist-correspondent, is well tapped into a network of fellow art-makers who all enjoy — and celebrate — a kind of art that is ambitious in scope and aspiration but often modest in means, taking its aesthetic cues from such sources as the environmental-protection and peace movements, and campaigns and initiatives that advocate for free expression, community-building, and seeking creative answers to timely social issues that give art and culture an active role in problem-solving.

Recently, she visited the studio of Dan Knight, an artist who was born in 1959 and has long lived and worked in London. He uses a wide range of found and cast-off materials to create kinetic sculptures. Knight seems to magically transform whatever he touches.

Cathy Ward reports:

LONDON — Dan Knight builds sculptures that are larger than life and infused with a celebratory, joyous vibe. Often, their scale makes them feel as though they have emerged from science-fiction or mythological stories. They’re interactive and multidimensional, utilizing electrical, wind-generated, or human-generated energy, as well as water and sound.

In these noise-making assemblages, Knight gives discarded household appliances new life by rewiring and reassembling them into what might be described as “orchestral appliances of science,” for the strange, sound-producing objects he concocts may be played like musical instruments by a viewer — by any viewer, that is, because anyone who encounters them becomes at once their conductor and a musician performing with or on them.