Heliogram is a limited edition flexi publication that combines field recordings by Robin Watkins with a suite of riso prints by Nina Canell. In their own ways, they consider the ecological effects of static electricity by tapping into a field of intermingling energy signatures.
For Heliogram, Robin Watkins used a handheld receiver to modulate energy into a hearable range, capturing a stream of hum harmonics in real time. Locating low-frequency audio signals from midge-wings within the magnetosphere, it is a direct channeling of atmospheric electricity, pressed on a transparent flexi sheet.
The recording is accompanied by 12 risograph-printed images from the series Polyethylene Feels by Nina Canell. Caused by the branching of microcharges, copper particles follow the indeterminate behavior of ions, exposing sudden intricate arrangements on plastic polyethylene sheets. Buildup and traces left behind by fingers, hair, mechanical production processes, and folding are some of the electrostatic presences that register in the prints.
Limited edition of 125 copies.
Born 1980 in Stockholm, Robin Watkins lives and works in Berlin.
Born 1979 in Växjö (Sweden), Nina Canell lives and works in Berlin. Her installations give concrete expression to the lightness and intangibility of the everyday. The natural materials she presents—water, stone, air, earth, wood, copper—are traversed by electric arcs and heat sources, giving rise to delicate, ephemeral physical reactions that reveal and underscore our innate relationship with our immediate environment. Her work has recently been shown at the Moderna Museet (Stockholm), the Camden Arts Centre (London), the Sydney Biennial, at MoMA and the Swiss Institute (New York), and at the
13th Lyon Biennale.
