Marion Kalmus is a British artist who produced work between 1993 and 2002. After a first profession as a fresco restorer, Kalmus studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. [1] [2] Whilst still a student she was commissioned to make a work at the Royal Festival Hall, London [1] She won the Nicholas and Andre Tooth Scholarship [3] and used the prize to film her work Deserter [4] which was shown at the Tate Liverpool 1995. [1] [5]
Kalmus was the Kettle's Yard Artist Fellow in Residence at Pembroke College 1997-1998. [6] [7] [8] Kalmus returned to Cambridge in 2000 to stage her surround sound film Restoration Drama at the former Festival Theatre, Cambridge. [9] [10] The work was "a silent movie of a play performance, projected in a disused theatre with the sound of a ghostly audience responding aurally to the action on the 'stage'." [11]
In 2002 her work was shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. [12] [13] She was nominated for the Jerwood Artist’s Platform 2004. [13]
Kalmus was an early adopter of digital technologies, [2] making computer-controlled artworks in the early 1990s when such technologies in fine art were still very unusual. She was nominated for both Digital Art and Fine Art Sculpture prizes within a year: The Imaginaria Digital Art prize at the Institute of Contemporary Arts 1999 [14] and the Jerwood Sculpture Prize for 2001. [1] [15] Her work, Deserter, was a "computer-coordinated slide program" in which she is featured as a wandering romantic heroine roaming the sand dunes of Australia. The work incorporated thousands of still images presented in rapid fire onto the surfaces of two-way mirrors. [16]
Her sculpture proposal for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize, titled Before and After, addressed landscape design history, by taking the form of a rock formation that recalled the derelict ruins of Whitley Court, a Victorian Era mansion. [17] The maquette for the sculpture was described as raising "complex questions about the nature of artificial landscape" and the "eternal paradox of art as imitation of nature." [18] Richard Cork of The Times states that Kalmus wants viewers of the work to "meditate on time, nature and change." [19]
Kalmus' permanent architectural installation for the National Botanic Garden of Wales opened in December 2001. [1] [20] The work, titled Thirty Three Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety Eight, was influenced by ancient Welsh roundhouse structures such as Castell Henllys. The installation incorporates a water feature, reminding visitors to the garden of the importance of water in the natural order. [20] A 15-foot high inverted glass cone protrudes through the round roof of the gatehouse; water cascades down the interior of the cone into a raised circular pool filled with stones. The lighting scheme highlights text that is etched into the glass, describing plants that are in danger of becoming extinct. [21] The title of the work references 33,798 endangered plant species. Kalmus' installation along with two other associated works won a Fountain Society award. [22]