Hyperion

Installation • Art • Switzerland 2021

My Role:

Ideation, Development

Year:

2021

Team:

Isabell Bullerschen, Florian Wachter, Stefan Hellinge, SANlight GmbH, Gwärtler Stiftung

Time:

3 month

In the experimental setup, “Hyperion [Exp. IV / ⌇365nm ≣120μm]: rising/falling” biotopes made of stone paper, substrate, and germinable seeds are irradiated with artificial sunlight. On the one hand, the title refers to the Titan of light Hyperion and, on the other hand, to the experimental character with the wavelength of the irradiating UV light and the grammage of the paper. A sensor registers that someone is approaching the installation, and the light radiation increases. This inevitable influence is ambivalent: It causes a more vigorous growth of the plants and, at the same time, a faster decay of the fundament of the biotopes - the stone paper.

INSTALLATION

Stone paper (UV degradable), acrylic glass frames, growing lamps, UV lamps, soil, bioindicators (Lepidium sativum / Mentha x Piperita), PIR motion sensor, Arduino controller, 210 cm x 200 cm x 90 cm

Hyperion, installation view at Helmhaus, Zürich, Switzerland

Construction

The frames of the biotopes take up the components of the stone paper. The organic forms made of synthetic acrylic glass are inspired by marine creatures whose sedimentation forms limestone. The stone paper consists of 80% limestone powder and 20% polyethylene as a binder. Despite resource-saving production, it becomes a symbol of ambiguity tolerance in our daily decisions due to the plastic it contains. It illustrates the dilemma of “not being able not to influence”. At the same time, this plastic is the reason for the decay of the paper in the installation. Polyethylene becomes porous under constant exposure to sunlight, and the paper decomposes into small pieces containing microplastics.

This disintegration I associate with the Land Art artist Robert Smithson’s notion of entropy. The general tendency of the universe to move towards chaos. An irreversible, energetic process that occurs in nature and that ends in the earth’s physical heat death. This unstoppable movement is reinforced by human intervention.

Acrylic glass frames, stone paper, soil