Kira Phoenix K’inan
/ INTERTWIST / 30 APRIL – 16 MAY /
London-based artist and designer Kira Phoenix K’inan brings together fine art and craft through her glass sculptures, works on paper and multi-exposure photography in her solo exhibition at The Hellenic Centre, INTERTWIST.
INTERTWIST explores the theme of twisting lines and forms together creating works that are in a constant visual flux. Taking inspiration from practitioners of the Futurism art movement, especially painters Kurt Schwitters and Umberto Boccioni, Kira uses line and colour to create dynamic movement that keeps the viewer’s eye tracking its course.
“Drawings are my way to tell stories and are inspired by my ever-changing surroundings, which are made physical through each line that interconnects with another. Each drawing is an abstracted vision and each work grows out of the one before in intricacy, depth, colour and rhythm.”
Kira Phoenix K’inan Constructure In Red Grey, 2018, Glass, 50cmx50cmx1cm
While Kira was a Masters student in the Glass and Ceramics Department at the Royal College of Art she explored traditional glass techniques and translated them into a contemporary series of glass sculptures. She developed a unique technique of low relief drawing, the Relief Drawing Technique, where she carved directly into a plaster sheet and cast the piece using fine ground glass. Rust In Blue, 1 and Rust In Blue, 3 are the most recent incarnation of this technique.
The Beautiful Trauma and Beautiful Bodies series of drawings are Kira’s personal study of physical, mental and emotional trauma. For Kira trauma is a forever changing experience that morphs from one form to the next, sometimes in the blink of an eye. Beautiful Bodies series also takes inspiration from the mythologies of old, especially Greek Mythology, and the Gods who transformed themselves.
Kira translates the two-dimensional lines of her works on paper into three-dimensional glass sculptures, which include The Constructure Series. This series takes delicate individual Relief Drawings and through fusing the layers in the kiln, creates a multilayered mesh that is stronger than any individual layer alone.
Kira Phoenix K’inan, Building
Taking inspiration from painting and playing with perspective, The Constructure Series evokes the illusion of further depth on a seemingly flat plane to reveal an undulating surface within the glass sculpture. Constructure in Periwinkle Blue and Constructure in Opal Green also make reference to the quantity of plastic now floating in our Planets Oceans, with the rest of the series reflecting how vibrant the coral reefs in our oceans should be, instead of the current state of decay.
Supported by the Hellenic Centre. 16-18 Paddington St, Marylebone, London W1U 5AS – Free entry; for Opening Hours call : 020 7487 5060 – Closest Tube Station : Baker Street
