IN CONVERSATION WITH ORSON HEIDRICH, THE MOON'S NEW FURY
''THE MOON'S NEW FURY', CURATED BY JOHANNA BEAR, EXPLORES THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE UNSEEN, THE OCCULT, AND THE SUPERNATURAL. ACADEMICS, ARTISTS AND CREATIVES HAVE LONG EMBRACED THE SUBVERSIVE POSSIBILITIES OF MYSTICAL FORCES, AND RECENT GLOBAL TUMULT HAS PROMPTED PEOPLE TO SEARCH FOR MEANING OUTSIDE OF THE DOMINANT KNOWLEDGE-SYSTEMS AND POWER STRUCTURES.'
THE EDITION TALKS TO MIXED MEDIA ARTIST, ORSON HEIDRICH, ON HIS FEATURED WORKS FROM HIS 2021 BODY OF WORK 'MULTISPEC', WHO GIVES FORM TO EPHEMERAL INTERNET ARTEFACTS AND DEBRIS IN THE FORM OF PHYSICAL SCULPTURE AND AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCE.
'THE MOON'S NEW FURY' IS ON SHOW NOW THROUGH TO THE 7TH OF MAY AT KINGS GALLERY MELBOURNE, AND FEATURES THE WORKS OF ARTISTS, ANNA MAY KIRK, ANNA POGOSSOVA, MANISHA ANJALI, MENG-YU YAN, NAOMI BLACKLOCK, ORSON HEIDRICH AND SUNDARI CARMODY.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROCESS AND HOW YOUR WORK WITHIN THE MIXED MEDIA SPACE INFORMS YOUR VISION.
I AM AN EXPANDED PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST, WHO’S WORK MORPHS SO HEAVILY INTO SCULPTURE IT BECOMES A HYBRID FORM OF THE TWO. THIS OUTPUT COMES FROM MY BACKGROUND AND TRAINING AS A PHOTOGRAPHER, WHERE I WASN’T HAPPY WITH THE FLATNESS OF IMAGERY, AND WAS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR WAYS TO EXPAND IT FURTHER, WHICH LEAD ME DOWN THE SCULPTURAL RECIPIENT THAT THE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK WOULD EVENTUALLY SIT ON. FROM HERE MY PROCESS INVOLVES THE ABSTRACTION OF THE IMAGERY THROUGH THE USE OF MECHANICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL AIDS IN THE CULMINATION OF MY FINAL WORKS.
I FIND HOW I BREAK UP MY BODIES OF WORK HOWEVER IS STILL VERY PHOTOGRAPHIC, WHERE THIS ELEMENT DRIVES THE CONCEPTUAL RATIONALE, EVEN THOUGH IT IS OFTEN QUITE CONCEALED THROUGH MANY LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION. WHEN I’M LOOKING AT A PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, I’M LOOKING HOW THAT CAN BE INTERPRETED AND ABSTRACTED, MANIPULATED AWAY FROM ITS ORIGINAL SOURCE INTO SOMETHING THAT IS OCCUPYING AND ENGAGING TO THE AUDIENCE. HOW I LOOK AT INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS AND SERVICES IS DIFFERENT HOWEVER, BECAUSE I’M ALWAYS LOOKING AT HOW I CAN MANIPULATE AND SUBVERT THOSE SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES FROM A CONSTRUCTION BASED OUTPUT TO A FRIVOLOUS AND CONTEMPORARY ART FOCUS, SOMETHING THAT IS PURELY FOR AESTHETICS AND PLEASURE.
EXPLORING THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE UNSEEN, THE OCCULT AND THE SUPERNATURAL, HOW HAS THIS THEME MANIFESTED IN YOUR PIECES SHOWN IN 'THE MOON'S NEW FURY'?
THE WORK THAT IS BEING SHOWN WITH 'THE MOON'S NEW FURY' IS BOTH A SINGULAR WORK FROM A PREVIOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES ENTITLED ‘MULTISPEC’ AND A COLLABORATIVE WORK CREATED WITH FELLOW PHOTOGRAPHER AND ARTIST, ANNA POGOSSOVA, WHICH FEATURES ANOTHER WORK FROM MULTI SPEC THAT HAS BEEN MORPHED INTO A NEW OUTPUT.
‘MULTISPEC’ IS A BODY OF WORK THAT CULMINATED FROM SIX MONTHS OF SEARCHING AND COLLECTING INTERNET ARTEFACTS AND DEBRIS, DIGITAL RARITIES EXISTING FOR A FINITE TIME BEFORE BEING PERMANENTLY DELETED FROM THE WORLD’S SERVERS. THESE ARTEFACTS COMPRISED OF JPEGS THAT WERE CREATED WHEN MISUPLOADED PDFS WERE CONVERTED ON GOOGLE INTO VISUAL ASSETS NO GREATER THAN 1KB IN SIZE. THESE SUPER EPHEMERAL ITEMS ONLY EVER EXISTED FOR A DAY OR TWO, AND WERE OFTEN NEVER SEEN. FROM HERE I THEN MECHANICALLY UV PRINTED THESE IMAGES ON ALUMINIUM AS WELL AS CREATING BITMAP EXTRUSIONS AS A WAY TO PHYSICALISE THESE TRANSIENT ANOMALIES.
TYING BACK INTO THE THEMES OF 'THE MOON'S NEW FURY’, IS THIS IDEA OF THE UNSEEN, THE OCCULT AND THE SUPERNATURAL, THESE WORKS REVEAL THE PURE FABRIC OF WHAT THE INTERNET IS, AND HOW WE ARE ONLY EVER SHOWN A TINY SLIVER OF THIS THROUGH THE USER INTERFACE. THIS IS VERY MUCH MANIFESTED IN THE ‘MULTISPEC’ WORK ON SHOW, WHERE THE PIECE IS PRESENTED IN AR FORMAT, EXISTING BETWEEN MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL, VERY MUCH RESEMBLING AN APPARITION OF SORTS, WHICH IS THE THEME THAT ANNA AND I WERE GOING WITH FOR THE VIDEO WORK WHICH STEMMED OUT OF IT.
WORKING COLLABORATIVELY WITH FELLOW ARTIST ANNA POGOSSOVA, HOW DID YOUR JOINT VISIONS FORM AND EVENTUATE HERE?
ANNA AND I HAVE WORKED TOGETHER FOR QUITE SOME TIME BOTH ARTISTICALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH MYSELF CURATING HER INTO A SHOW I CREATED A FEW YEARS AGO, HOWEVER THIS WILL BE THE MOST FORMALISED WAY OF WORKING TOGETHER PRESENTED TO DATE.
AN INCREDIBLE PHOTOGRAPHER, ANNA IS ALSO VERY PROFICIENT IN 3D DESIGN, AND USED ONE OF MY PROTOTYPES FOR ‘MULTI SPEC’ TO CREATE A VIDEO PIECE FOR AN EDITORIAL FEATURE ON FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES. THIS VIDEO PIECE WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE COLLABORATIVE WORK THAT IS BEING SHOWN IN CONJUNCTION TO THE ‘MULTI SPEC’ WORK AS PART OF 'THE MOON'S NEW FURY’.
ANNA IS SO TALENTED IT’S OUTRAGEOUS, IT HAS BEEN SUCH A PLEASURE WORKING ON THIS WITH HER. I AM REALLY EXCITED TO PRESENT THE WORKS AND HOW THEY SPEAK TO EACH OTHER DURING THE SHOW.
WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST IN 2022?
I HAVE SOME VERY EXCITING NEWS COMING SOON, THAT I AM WORKING ON A BIG BODY OF WORK FOR, HOWEVER IN THE MEANTIME I AM GEARING UP FOR A PRESENTATION OF WORKS CREATED DURING MY RECENT RESIDENCY AT STUDIO FF, COMING MID YEAR. THESE WILL BE MORE PHOTOGRAPHICALLY FOCUSED DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE SPACE THAT I WAS WORKING IN.
IMAGES COURTESY OF ORSON HEIDRICH
