Kenneth Lambert

Kenneth Lambert’s experimental practice embraces disintegrated matter and the inexorable expressions that reflect the human condition. Lambert’s conceptual approach captures the contemporary zeitgeist by transposing themes found in science to illuminate current social issues and rising anxieties of our time. At the intersection of technology and the humanities, the artist’s investigations have led to works that utilise particle acceleration to relate to climate change and data translation technology to investigate digital autonomy. Lambert’s cross-disciplinary practice encompasses digital, film, expanded painting and installation.

‘Residue’ explores the residual effects of being born into apartheid and the deep seated trauma of exposure to systemic violence. The work reflects the social and geographical displacement due to racial oppression through the mechanics of gravity as a virulent force. The artist seeks to express the alienating effect of trauma stemming from recurring exposure to various forms of racial violence and discrimination ‘Where there is smoke’ incorporates a poem of the artist’s son, ‘Burning Man’, taken from a poetry suite. It explores themes of inherited trauma, systemic cycles of violence and oppression experienced by the father who was born into institutional racism. ‘Where there is smoke’ parallels the poetry in its union and critique of father and son, manifesting the reverence and disparity between the two and evoking the more significant systemic factors that belie their relationship.