The unpredictability of sculptures in motion.
All of Lee McDonald's work is made in a piecemeal way, each time a sculpture is created provisionally. At the same time, it is always put together with spatial precision, no matter how small it is.
He provides each sculpture set in motion with a test number. It is not so much about whether a test succeeds or fails, but much more about looking at what happens. Each test is videotaped.
Lee McDonald has now carried out about 2700 tests, ranging from swaying spray paint cans that are smashed on a wall to a life-size starfighter made of cardboard, straps and tape that is sailed down from a roof. The power of his work is emphasized by the fact that every recorded test on film still radiates the energy of the moment when the test was taken. The unpredictable movements of the sculptures make the film images an idiosyncratic and mysterious phenomenon of cause and effect. In most cases, Lee McDonald's machine-driven works lead to self-destruction.
Lee McDonald says the following about his work: “It is not enough that a moving device works. The turning of the parts is achieved with the aid of a mechanism, but the result must always contain an unpredictable movement. Otherwise, it's just a machine doing its job. I can only discover that when I test the device.” He compares it to movements that dancers make in relation to the music they hear: “I find it interesting, for example, to see people dancing who make non-obvious movements to the rhythm of the music.”
In one of McDonald's tests from 2020, he can be seen dancing in his studio with a spinning airplane propeller on his back, it is not clear whether he is propelled by the mechanism on his back or by the music to which he dances and makes strange movements.
Lee McDonald (1979, Plymouth, UK) studied at the Franck Mohr Institute in Groningen, together with Salim Bayri, Henry Byrne, Kimball Gunnar Holth and Nokukhanya Langa. His work was shown at Big Art 2020 and 2021. In 2021, McDonald won The One Minutes International Competition Award in the 'Installation' category. This year he had a solo presentation in Art Island 2023 at Fort Ijmuiden and in July McDonald will show a new sculpture specially made for Fort Ruigenhoek, close to Utrecht, Netherlands.