Stephen Cripps: Performing Machines

The oeuvre of British artist Stephen Cripps (1952-1982) was highly innovative and experimental. His works developed out of an interest for kinetic sculpture and machines as well as from a fascination for the poetic potential of explosion and destruction. Until his early death Cripps built machines and interactive installations and realised pyrotechnical performances. With his performative and multisensorial artistic practices he focussed primarily on experiments with sound. He pushed the boundaries with his radical performances, many of which even now would be unthinkable due to their potential danger to the audience and their immediate surrounds. Cripps developed many of his projects in the medium of drawing and collage, which provide an insight into his rich and unconventional mindset. This exhibition provides an opportunity for a rediscovery of Cripps’ work which is presented on a large scale for the first time at Museum Tinguely. The exhibition is a co-operation with the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.