Leonie Kellein

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Artist statement

I initially studied film and worked as a filmmaker. Today I work across sound, moving image, image-object, and sculpture. In my artistic practice, I keep returning to the motif of the carrier pigeon. It is a living creature, yet it was, as it were, used as an early form of technology for aerial photography—a practice that has since been replaced by other technologies such as drones. Coming from the field of film, I am interested in the pigeon as an “operator”; especially because its body can never be fully controlled: In the footage shot by the pigeon, we are constantly reminded of its body: the image shakes violently, and we can see the tips of its wings. In my work, I try to give the force of performativity central focus. My aim is to create an image that is not merely documentary, but becomes an expression of the body that produces it. I call this a “double state,” in which reality is split into two states. In this process, the perception of the body enters into a dialogue or conflict with the technical means of the recording. In my work "A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat! " I tried to expand the boundaries of what is audible and visible. In referencing aesthetics of earlier homing pigeon photography, whose analog technology drone-mounted cameras replace, the work incorporates various media dispositions in order to ultimately dissolve the distinctions between subject and object. Through a constellation traversing video, image object, sculpture and sound, I tried to position...

Artwork