Lester Korzilius is an artist and architect. As a licensed architect and dual-national in the UK and the US, he has practised in both countries on projects around the world and now runs an independent art and architecture practice in London and Chichester. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In the arts, Korzilius graduated with an MFA from the University of Sussex in 2019 and is completing an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in 2022. Architecture undergraduate studies in the US at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and Master's degrees in the UK from the University of Reading and Kingston University.
Lester Korzilius
Lester Korzilius is an artist and architect and combines elements of both in his work. His work strives to engage the viewer on a liminal level to the unpresentable and infinite in both art and architecture. He does this by combining both pre-objective and culturally constructed elements. The work explores how the viewer perceives and interprets the work with the intention that the various elements are combined dialectically in the mind of the viewer. The work focuses on presentation rather than a representation with the result that the work is often a trace or palimpsest of the underlying intentions. Larger installations and architectural works respond to their environments with the intention that there is a three-way connection between the artwork, the viewer, and the surrounding environment.
Photo by Wade Zimmerman
A sculpture installation that explores the liminal and unpresentable and how this is physically instantiated. The title references architectural theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz and his Heideggerian concept that we dwell poetically between earth and sky. The work extends this concept by postulating that this concept of dwelling provides a mechanism of being with the artwork at a level outside of language and thought. The work is a trace of the presentation of the infinite, rather than its representation.
Images shown are of a mock-up prior to the RCA 2022 Degree Show.
Medium:
Fabric, Jesmonite, paint, steel, acrylic mirror, timber, steel wireSize:
280 x 431 x 150 cm
The title references the aspiration that the work communicates on a figural level before language or thought. Scale, form, texture and colour are the main compositional elements. The scale is deliberately slightly larger than human size, and the form and texture vary considerably. The colour while bold is deliberately kept monochrome (other than varying hues through shade and shadow) so that the viewer's emphasis remains focused on the form and texture.
Medium:
Paint, cement render, Jesmonite, expanded foam, papier-macheSize:
193 x 94 x 130 cm
Early-stage design for a visitor’s pavilion for the Kurt Schwitters festival to be held in Cumbria, UK. The design is particularly inspired by Schwitters’ Hanover Merzbau of 1923-37, as well as El Lissitzsky’s Red Wedge, Konstantin Melnikov’s Soviet pavilion at the 1925 Paris Worlds Fair, Vladamir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International, and Bruno Taut’s Crystal Mountain.
The design reinterprets several construction technologies and recombines them into a free-standing work of art. Architecture is sculpture, and sculpture is architecture.
Medium:
Integrally coloured LDPE fabric, scaffolding polesSize:
Varies
The images shown are installation views at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 5th July 2021 to 15th March 2022.
Inspired by the theories of Jacques Lacan the work explores our perception of the real, imaginary and symbolic. The work makes the viewer question if what they see is real, a reflection of the work itself, an image of the environment, or a fragment of themselves. The title references Lacan’s mirror stage where he postulated that the ability to recognise one’s image as a reflection is a learned response in human development. Lacan’s Mirror challenges the viewer to differentiate between the real and the reflection/imaginary, and the viewer forms a gestalt of these opposing forces when observing the work.
Photos by Barney Hindle
Medium:
Steel, acrylic mirrors, MDF, steel cablesSize:
200 x 210 x 117 cm
Continued exploration into materiality and perception.
Medium:
Wood, velvet, acrylic mirror, paintSize:
42 x 35 x 42 cm
Inspired by Jacques Lacan's theories, the work manipulates our perception of what is real, a reflection, or a reflected void. The material and colour palette is deliberately kept very simple.