Kopf Kino is a solo exhibition by Pennsylvania-born and Berlin-based artist Stephen Kent
which gathers a series of work from 2021–2023 that dives into a cinematic realm—
exploring the photographic possibilities within a sculptural practice.

The series "Within the Egg of a Flea" began as a reference to Joseph Campbell’s perception of how we create myth out of the smallest act of noticing: how something so minuscule can turn into a expansive and magnificent story which we all have the capability to spark. The minuscule in this series of work is the pixel: where the ancient technique of mosaic weaves into the contemporary resolution of the digital camera and the zettabyte of data that we absorb, create, and share at every moment with our smartphones and technological apparati.

In this case, Kent’s work uses an iPhone to facilitate an active photographic journaling that happens throughout the artist’s daily activities (e.g. en route to the studio, running errands, on vacation with family, etc.).

The title of the show, Kopf Kino (translated as “head movie”), refers to a slippage wherein the mind is agitated by this sensory overload, causing a separation between reality and perception: a disassociation that creates a fissure in ones mind—and which is represented in the trompe-l'œil qualities of the work and the retail landscapes that the photographs capture.