Mantha Rhei

Manta Rhei combines choreographed light with physical movement for a kinetic light sculpture that has a strong poetic and performative spatial presence. Using organic light-emitting diodes, it is a contemporary addition to the genre of kinetic light objects that blurs the boundaries between natural and artificial, animate and inanimate. The current version of Manta Rhei consists of fourteen flexible, metal lamellae of 1.2 metres, each of which carries ten paper-thin OLEDs. The lamellae are suspended from the ceiling with a metal rod. Thin steel wires are connected to individually controllable motors that raise and lower the ends of each lamella, allowing various movement patterns to be performed. The kinetic sculpture seems to hover silently in an intermediate space between the ceiling and the ground. Due to its modularity it can be expanded to a kinetic environment. Through the performance of light and movement Manta Rhei shapes and interacts with space.