solar wind: magnes magnus magnifique!
What is our relationship with energy? What is the nature of our fascination with it? Are we capable not only of being flexible in the ways we produce and use energy but also coping with fundamental shifts in the way we perceive our need for it?
I have always associated ‘wind’ with ‘change’. In Solar Wind: Magnus Magnes Magnifique! the prevailing local wind shifts the alignment of the array in relation to its source of illumination. The imagery, sourced from scientific publications regarding electricity, electromagnetism and geomagnetic fields is drawn into the surface of the wing/windmill blade-like panels. [1] It reminds us of the many people who have contributed their resources, research and inspirations into an ever-present and ever-changing need for energy, in the pursuit of understanding its origins and harnessing its power. Centuries of dreaming, thinking and research have brought us this convenient solar LED technology. Yet in the simple array of this sculpture we may suspend the complexity of knowledge poured into scientific conundrums and be purely inspired and in awe of their simplicity in resolution: a world in flux, sometimes light and sometimes dark.
2012. Panel I: The Spreading Sea Floor (Marine Magnetic anomalies symmetrically about an underwater ridge, Heirtzler et al to Lawrie with Bullard's convective motions in the equatorial plane.
Installation view of panel I at UNSW Art & Design in 2014.