Preorder. Shipping after our 10.28.2024 event with Robin Watkins and Nina Canell at Printed Matter Chelsea.
Heliogram is a limited edition publication with a flexi disc that combines a field recording by Robin Watkins and a suite of 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. Recorded on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Robin Watkins locates low-frequency audio signals from midge-wings within the magnetosphere. A handheld receiver was used to modulate energy into a hearable range in real time, capturing a range of hum harmonics.
Emphasizing the small-scale occurrences that make up large-scale environments, it is a direct channeling of atmospheric electricity, pressed on a thin, 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. -Publisher