After Alessandro Volta, 2012, 36x15x15cm wood, felt, zinc, copper

Galvanic Reaction n. 2, 2012, copper and zinc plates, each 21 x 16cm

Galvanic Reaction (Large Plate, Experiment n. 1), 2012, Copper, 160 x 120 cm

Galvanic Reaction V (Large Plate), 2013, copper, 140 x 100 cm

Galvanic Reaction VII (Large Plate), 2013, copper, 140 x 100 cm,.

Installation view, Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, 2013

Galvanic Reaction, 2013, zinc plate 140 x 100cm

Galvanic Reaction, 2013, copper, tryptich, each plate 20 x 33cm

Electrolyser / Glass Crystal Experiment no.7 with Glass Crystal, 2012object, photograph: framed inkjet print on paper, photograph 14 x 14 cm unframed, ed. unique.

Electrolyser / Glass Crystal Experiments, 2012, 6 photographs, pigment inkjet print on fine art paper. Framed. Unframed size: 13 x 10 cm, ed. unique

Untitled, 2013, electrolyser, various metal parts, plastic, electronics, water, 136 x 122 x 76 cm. Dimensions of lamp: 17 x 21 x 23 cm. Installation dimensions variable

Untitled, detail, 2013, electrolyser, various metal parts, plastic, electronics, water, 136 x 122 x 76 cm. Dimensions of lamp: 17 x 21 x 23 cm. Installation dimensions variable

Untitled (Electrolyser), 2013, plexiglas, plastic, stainless steel, syringe, copper, 7.5 x 27.5 x 16.5 cm, ed. 3 + 2 AP

Installation view, Artgenève, Geneva, 2013,

Water Car, 2013, h 134 x 400 x 162 cm, found car, electrolyser, various metal parts, plastic, electronics, water. (Detail).

Water Car, 2013, h 134 x 400 x 162 cm, found car, electrolyser, various metal parts, plastic, electronics, water. (Detail).

Electrolyser with Rain Water 2012, photograph, pigment inkjet print on fine art paper, 173 x 115 cm framed, ed.n.1/2 + 1 AP

Installation view, Roma Contemporary 2012

Steel Plate Destroyed by Electrolyser I”, 2012, stainless steel, 21 x 153 x 118 cm

Excerpts from a Diary

Installation, dimensions variable, 2009

The installation Excerpts from a Diary is based on the alleged invention of Viktor Stepanovich Grebennikov, a self-taught Russian biologist who, from an early age became fascinated by in-sects and observed and studied them throughout his life. Grebennikov’s autobiography docu-ments how, in 1988 while studying an insect specimen collected from Siberia, he discovered a phenomenon which he claimed to be biological anti-gravity or weightlessness. His writing describes his construction of a flying machine that utilised the hitherto unknown power held in the wings of this insect and how he made flights above the local countryside, experiment-ing with his mysterious new technology. Since his recent death, the legacy of Grebennikov’s story has developed myth-like proportions in parts of Russia. The resulting work combines found film footage, with interviews I conducted with Greben-nikov’s friends and family in Novosibirsk, Siberia. It is an investigation into a personality that recaptures the spirit of the scientific amateur whose study enters the realm of utopic possibili-ties.

Installation components: -Interviews, with Rimma Nikolayevna, Natalia Solovyeva, Andrey Grebennikov, Vasiliyi Sushkov, Andrey (journalist) and Yuriy Cherednichenko, Camera: Anne Misselwitz. Video projection, DVD, 18:39 min. -Archival footage from The Bumble Bee Hills, 1971, Omsk State Television. 16mm film loop projection, 7 min.-Flight, copper plate etching, screen printed text, 29.7 x 84cm.-Machine, super 8 film loop projection, 1 min.

Flight, copper plate etching, screen printed text on acid free paper, 29.7 x 84cm.Archival footage from The Bumble Bee Hills 1971, Omsk State Television. 16mm film loop projection, 7 min.

Flight, copper plate etching, screen printed text. 29.7x 84cm

A hot summer’s day. The far-away

landscape drowns in a blue-lilac haze. I

am flying about 300 meters above ground,

with a distant lake as my reference point.

Blue, intricate outlines of trees slowly recede;

between them, there are fields. Bluish-green

ones are fields of oats; the whitish rectangles

with a strange, rhythmic twinkling are those

of buckwheat. Straight ahead is a field of

alfalfa - its green colour looks familiar,

it resembles the oil-paint "cobalt medium-

green". An enormous, multi-coloured palette

floats further and further away from me.

I lean forward slightly and feel a warm,

taut breeze coming from the sun-warmed

ground and plants far below. I can’t be seen

from the ground, and not just because of the

distance: even in low flight I cast almost no

shadow. I am almost overwhelmed by a thick,

dense current of air with a strong odour of

blooming buckwheat. Of course this jet can

easily lift up even a large bird - an eagle, a

stork, or a crane – with open wings. But I

have none and am not suspended in the air by

this upward jet; in my flight I am supported

by a flat, rectangular little platform, slightly

bigger than the seat of a chair. It has a pole

and two handles, which I’m holding onto and

which help me control the machine. I chose

a rectangular design because its easier to

fold, and when folded it resembles a suit-

case. So as not to arouse suspicion I naturally

disguised it as a painter’s case. Is all this

science fiction? I wouldn't say so.

How and why did I come to this discov-

ery? In the summer of 1988, as I was

examining under a microscope the chitin

shells of insects, their feathery feelers, and

the thin structure of butterflies' wings, I

became interested in an amazingly rhythmi-

cal microstructure of a large insect specimen.

I put this small, concave chitin plate under

the microscope in order to closely examine

its strangely star-shaped cells. I admired this

masterpiece of nature, and almost without

thinking placed it on top of an identical plate

with the same unusual cells on one of its

sides. But no! The sample suddenly broke

loose from my tweezers; for a few seconds it

hung suspended above the other plate on the

microscope shelf, then turned a few degrees

clockwise, slid to the right, turned counter-

clockwise, swung, and only then abruptly fell

on the desk. You can imagine what I felt at

that moment. When I came to my senses,

I tied a few chitin plates together with a

wire. It wasn't an easy thing to do, and I

only succeeded when I positioned them verti-

cally. This created a block of multi-layered

chitin. I put it on the desk. Even a relatively

large object such as a drawing pin would not

fall onto it; something pushed it up and to

the side. When I attached the pin on top

of the block, I witnessed such incredible,

impossible things that I realized this was no

illusion, but something entirely different.

The first practical use of my discovery

was and still is entomological. In my flights

I find new, still unexamined insect habitats

in need of protection and rescue. Alas,

nature established its own, strict limitations

on my work: just as on a passenger plane,

I could see things but couldn't photograph

them. My camera shutter wouldn't close, and

both film rolls I had taken with me - one in

the camera, the other in my pocket - became

light-struck. I didn't succeed in sketching the

landscape either, as both my hands were

almost always busy; I could only free one

hand for a couple of seconds. Thus I could

only draw from memory immediately after

landing. Though I am an artist, my visual

memory is not that great.

I conducted my first, very unsuccessful

and highly dangerous flight on the night of

March 17th, 1990. I had bad luck from the

very beginning: the panel blocks of the right

part of the bearing platform periodically

got stuck. I should have fixed the problem

immediately, but neglected to do so. I took

off right in the middle of the Agricultural

Academy campus, erroneously assuming that

at one am everyone was asleep, and nobody

would see me. The lift-off went well, but after

a few seconds, when the lit windows of build-

ings sank beneath me, I felt dizzy. I remained

airborne, which I instantly regretted when

a powerful force snatched away my control

of the machine, and pulled me towards the

city.

Carried by this unexpected, uncontrol-

lable power, I crossed the city's residen-

tial area, then a snow-covered narrow field,

and the Academy City highway. The dark

immensity of Novosibirsk was closing in

fast upon me. I was already near a bunch

of tall factory chimneys, many of which

fumed thick smoke - night shift was on. I

had to act fast. I got on top of the situation

only with great effort. Finally I managed

an emergency adjustment of the panel

blocks. My horizontal movement slowed

down, but then I started to feel sick again.

Only on my fourth attempt did I succeed

in slowing down. My platform was now

hanging over Zatulinka, the city's industrial

district. The sinister chimneys silently

continued to fume right beneath me.

The next day I woke up feeling exhausted;

of course I couldn't get out of bed. Reports

on TV and in the newspapers were more

than alarming. Headlines, such as "UFO

over Zatulinka" and "Aliens again?" meant

that my flight had been detected. But how!

Some perceived the "phenomenon" as glow-

ing spheres or disks - many actually saw not

one sphere but two! Others claimed they had

seen a "real saucer" with windows and rays

of light.

Why am I not disclosing the details of

my discovery at this time? Firstly, one needs

time and energy for proving the truth. I have

neither. I experienced how daunting this can

be when I tried to get recognition for my

previous discoveries.

The second reason is that I found these

anti-gravitational properties in only a single

species of Siberian insect. I won’t name

even the class to which this insect belongs.

It seems to be on the verge of extinction,

and the population surge I noted back then

was probably local and short lived. Thus, if I

were to name it, what would prevent groups

of amateur biologists rushing out into the

countryside to catch perhaps the very last

examples of this miracle of nature?

I hope I’ll be understood and forgiven

by those of my readers who are curious for

information about my discovery. It makes

little difference that I’m about fifty years

ahead of contemporary science with my

invention. Others will discover this and many

more mysteries of matter, space, gravitation,

and time. Similar inventions to mine will

soon become widely available, and yet living

nature is under great threat if we do nothing

to protect it.

From My World, Chapter 5, ‘Flight’, (1995)

by Victor Stepanovich Grebennikov 1927-

2001.

Flying an Anti-gravitational Platform

-Excerpts from a Diary

Selected text from My World, Victor Stepanovich Grebennikov, 1994.

                                                   

 

Excerpts from a Diary – Machine, copper plate etching, screen printed text, 16mm film loop

Film stills, Archival footage from The Bumble Bee Hills, 1971, Omsk State Television. 16mm film loop projection, 7 min.

Video stills, Interviews with Rimma Nikolayevna, Natalia Solovyeva, Andrey Grebennikov, Vasiliyi Sushkov, Andrey (journalist) and Yuriy Cherednichenko. DVD video projection, 18:39 min.

Free Energy Research

Several years researching the free energy movement have led me to Methernitha, a se-cretive religious cult in Switzerland who claim to have built a working free energy machine (see Cabinet Magazine article) and to the US to interview inventors. The works Prototype II, 2009, and The place of the material world in the universe is that of an exquisitely beauti-ful precipitate or varied cloud-work in the universal aether, 2004 are based on the US patent no.6545444 B2 filed in 2003 by the inventor John Bedini.

Bedini’s system, comprising of electronics and moving mechanical parts, claims to charge a bank of batteries to produce free energy – known as the state of over-unity – by supplying more power to the batteries than is required to keep it running. These works were built follow-ing the advice and postings of websites dedicated to replicating the device.

Prototype II (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini) 2009. Plexiglass, batteries, copper wire, Magnets, electronics, 180 x 70 x 30cm

Prototype II, (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini) 2009. Plexiglass, batteries, copper wire, magnets, electronics.Batteries charged by machine supply energy to reel to reel player. Audio: Talk Radio with John Bedini (excerpts from 1980s US talk radio show Open Mind),

Talk Radio with John Bedini (excerpts from 1980s US talk radio show Open Mind), 2009, Tesla reel to reel tape player.

                              Prototype II (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini) 2009, Plexiglass, 12V batteries, copper wire, Magnets, electronics

                           Prototype II & Reading Table, detail, glass, wood, printed paper, 12Volt Battery, Lamp

                                                                                                                                   

 

 Talk Radio with John Bedini (excerpts from 1980s US talk radio show Open Mind). Tesla reel to reel tape player powered by 12V battery

 

 

               The place of the material world in the universe is that of an exquisitely beautiful precipitate or varied cloud-work in the universal aether, (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini)      

Plexiglass, batteries, copper wire, magnets, electronics.                                      

The place of the material world in the universe is that of an exquisitely beautiful precipitate or varied cloud-work in the universal aether, (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini), 2004. Plex-iglass, batteries, copper wire, magnets, electronics.

The place of the material world in the universe is that of an exquisitely beautiful precipitate or varied cloud-work in the universal aether, (after US patent no.6545444 B2 by John Bedini), 2004. Plexiglass, batteries, copper wire, magnets, electronics.

A World Apart: Interviews with Julius Scholtemeyer, 2005

Video Installation & Publication

The inventor Julius Scholtemeyer made contact with me in 2005. Over a period of many months I visited him in Lutherstadt Wittenberg and we discussed his theories and his difficulties in achieving recognition for his invention of an electrical energy generator that he claimed would effectively provide free energy production. This resulted in the video work A World Apart (Inter-views with Julius Scholtemeyer) and a poster that we designed collaboratively that was com-missioned for the Strategic Questions project by curator Gavin Wade (Birmingham, UK). This research also resulted in an artist’s project for the publication Untitled Magazine.

A World Apart (Interviews with Julius Scholtemeyer), fold-up poster designed in collaboration with Scholtemeyer for the project Strategic Questions: What is Energy? Commissioned by Gavin Wade, 2005

A World Apart (Interviews with Julius Scholtemeyer), fold-up poster designed in collaboration with Scholtemeyer for the project Strategic Questions: What is Energy? Commissioned by Gavin Wade, 2005

A World Apart (Interviews with Julius Scholtemeyer), fold-up poster designed in collaboration with Scholtemeyer for the project Strategic Questions: What is Energy? Commissioned by Gavin Wade 2005.

A World Apart (Interviews with Julius Scholtemeyer), 2005video still, 08:32 min,

Artist Project, Untitled Magazine, Spring 2005

Something for Nothing, Artist’s project, Cabinet Magazine, Issue 21, pp.68-69

We All Turn This Way (Crystal Receiver for Friedrich Jürgenson), 2008

Nick Laessing in collaboration with Athanasios ArgianasReading by Hans Ulrich ObristSerpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008

In collaboration with the artist Athanasios Argianas I built a crystal radio receiver, inspired by the story of Friedrich Jürgenson. In 1957 Jürgenson, an established painter and opera singer, be-gan to notice strange phenomena such as inexplicable, abstract messages on recordings of his own singing voice. He believed that these were the ‘voices of the dead’. In Spring 1960 one of the voices told him to ‘use the radio’ and this was the technique that he followed until his death. After two decades of ‘Audioscopic Research’ he set the receiving frequencies to 1445-1500 KHz (1485 KHz is now known as The Jürgenson Frequency). Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist read from Friedrich Jürgenson’s book Voice Transmissions With the Deceased before tuning the crystal receiver, (which utilises a pyrite crystal), into the Jürgenson Frequency.

We All Turn This Way (Crystal Receiv-er for Friedrich Jürgenson) 2008 130 x 130 x 20 cm.

We All Turn This Way (Crystal Receiver for Friedrich Jürgenson), 2008. 130 x 130 x 20 cm.Performance, Frank Gehry Pavillion, Serpentine Gallery, London.

Spatial Harmonics 2007-2009

Site specific installation, dimensions variable.

Spatial Harmonics is extrapolated from Professor Hugh Blackburn’s 1844 invention, the Har-monograph. Drawings produced by swinging pendulums exhibit harmonics, which are analo-gous to numerical ratios of musical harmonic theory – as established by Pythagoras 2500 years ago. Several pendulums within a timber framework are installed according to the dimensions of a given architectural space. The swinging pendulums produce site-specific finely detailed graph-ite and ink drawings that relate directly to the dimensions of the space and the duration in time of their conception.

                                 

 

Spatial Harmonics 2007-2009, CEAAC Strasbourg, 2011,  Wood, steel, paper, ink  

 

 

                             Spatial Harmonics, detail  

 

                           

 

Spatial Harmonics, detail  

 Spatial Harmonics, detail  

 

Spatial Harmonics (installation view), 2007 Faye Fleming and Partner, Geneva,

Spatial Harmonics (installation view), 2007Faye Fleming and Partner, Geneva.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Spatial Harmonics, studio series, 2009, black ink on acid free paper, 42 x 30 cm.

Voice Figures

Performance & Installation2007 - 2008

In the 1880s the singing teacher Margaret Watts Hughes invented a device she called the Eidophone. It consisted of a tube that she sung into. At the other end of the tube a membrane of stretched rubber would be caused to resonate. She created images on its surface using her voice to vibrate watercolour paste and fine powder into forms. She was able to sing flowers; daisies, pansies, and sunflowers, later on extending her repertoire to include quasi-religious imagery such as serpents in landscapes. Her work, in its attempt to understand the relationship between the voice and its ability to conjure up such visual manifestations of nature, attracted the curiosity of the scientific institutions of the day, Hughes’ performances created a minor sensation and demonstrations were given at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Society in London. The artist and president of the Royal Acad-emy of Arts, Lord Frederick Leighton invited Hughes to perform at a soiree at his Holland Park studio in London. Whilst the results of her work attracted attention, it was of such a personal nature that it was found impossible to evaluate in a scientific way.

With my Eidophones I lay no claim to originality in these inventions for myself, rather I am re-constructing the obsessions behind these discoveries, as I work through the original inventor’s thinking. I guess you could say this is driven by a nostalgia for a time when scientific innovation was still open to the lay-man and the utopian possibilities of these discoveries seemed tangible. I have rebuilt the Eidophones in collaboration with the classically trained singer Esmeralda Conde Ruiz as performative devices. However for me they also operate as sculp-tures in their own right. They function as strange objects with a sense of arcane functionality, as well as relics to a past performance, past time, and past obsession.

Voice Figures, stills, DVD, 5:15 min. 2007

                                     

 

 

Voice Figures, Performance, CEAAC Strasbourg, 2011, Installation & performance (See video)

 

 Voice Figures Performance, CEAAC Strasbourg, 2011  

 

                                           Eidophones (edition of 3) Brass, latex, steel, wood

Voice Figures, Installation.Jacky Strenz Gallery, Frankfurt 2007

Voice Figures, PerformanceJacky Strenz Gallery, Frankfurt 2007

Artist Project, Guestroom publications, 2007.

Elective Affinities, 2009

Installation

Elective Affinities is based on the experiment made by Jules Antoine Lissajous in 1857. It demonstrates harmonic vibration made visible. It continues my research into harmonics and sound made visible as previously explored in works such as Voice Figures and Spatial Har-monics.

Lissajous’ apparatus consisted of two tuning forks of equal pitch, fixed perpendicular to one another. Mirrors are attached to the tips of the forks. A light beam is directed onto the mirror on each fork. The two oscillations combine on perpendicular axes to create the visual repre-sentation of two equal pitches.

                                Elective Affinities 2009-2011, tuning forks, copper wire, plexiglass, aluminum, electronics.

 

                           Elective Affinities Detail  

 

 

Elective Affinities, 2009Tuning forks, copper wire, plexiglass, alu-minium, electronics.

Elective Affinities, 2009, detail.

Elective Affinities, Spatial Harmonics (studio series), Super 8 film projection, Voice Figures (DVD video projection), Artissima Present Future, Turin, 2009

Proposal for Site Specific Light Sculpture

Elective Affinities, 2009, (site specific light sculpture), comissioned by Standon Call-ing music festival.