Dominic Kießling
Dresden, Germany
Dominic Kießling is a visual artist whose practice transforms lightweight materials into large-scale kinetic installations animated by fans, hair dryers, or human performance. Born in Dresden in 1984, he studied industrial design before working for a decade in motion and stage design in Berlin. In 2019, he returned to Dresden to focus on analogue art, experimenting with everyday materials and immersive sculptural forms. In 2023, he established his studio in a former factory building to pursue one of his most ambitious projects. Starting with little more than plastic bags and a hair dryer, Kießling developed a dynamic aesthetic that blurs the line between object and organism. His work continues to explore themes of transformation, movement, and material tension.
2025 Biennial Project
Project Overview
Cause and Effect
This installation turns a steady stream of air into a moving wave made from plastic foil—rising and falling like water. Created through a playful, hands-on process, the piece explores how simple materials and natural forces can create something magical. What began with just a hairdryer, a plastic bag, and air has grown into an experiment in motion, form, and light.
In a time when technology often relies on screens and simulations, this project invites us to rediscover wonder in the physical world. Using fans and foil, the artist creates a wave you can see and feel—reminding us how curiosity and improvisation can transform the ordinary into something extraordinary.
Previous work
Project Overview
Venue
View moreStony Island Arts Bank
Address
6760 S Stony Island Ave, Chicago, IL 60649
Neighborhood
South Side
Description
Designed by William Gibbons Uffendell and built in 1923, the Stony Island Loan & Savings Bank at 68th and Stony Island was slated for demolition before artist Theaster Gates rescued, restored, and reconstituted the structure in 2015. One of Gates’s most notable spatial projects in Greater Grand Crossing, the Stony Island Arts Bank—a 17,000-square-foot historic building housing Rebuild Foundation’s contemporary art and experimental archival program on Chicago’s South Side—has hosted free exhibitions, screenings, performances, live recordings, artist retreats, artistic and archival residencies, workshops and classes in partnership with local and globally-renown artists over the past decade.
