Jeremy Shaw
Unseen Potential (Valhalla, a.1), 2022
Kirlian photograph
67.7 x 52.7 x 5 cm. (framed)
edition 1 of 1 + 1AP
In the Unseen Potential series, Shaw uses Kirlian photography to record a series of experiments that explore the hidden energies of plants with psychotropic properties. Discovered in 1939 by Russian...
In the Unseen Potential series, Shaw uses Kirlian photography to record a series of experiments that explore the hidden energies of plants with psychotropic properties. Discovered in 1939 by Russian inventor Semyon Kirlian (1898-1978), the technique is still used in fringe science and mystical practices. In complete darkness, Shaw places the plant directly on an unexposed piece of Polaroid land-film, situated on the copper plate surface of a Kirlian camera and ignites a high voltage charge through the film and into the plant. Kirlian photography is a contact-based process used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges that naturally occur around objects – considered by some to be their aura. The empirical process employed here produces images that fit the cultural lexicon of “the psychedelic” itself.
Provenance
from the Artist’s studio