Electrically
Dimensions vary, 2022, Archival Inkjet Prints with Electric Fractal Burns, No Editions
A bronze medallion, embedded in the brick next to the front door of our 1960s house, is emblazoned with the charge to “Live Better Electrically.” The medallion was part of one of the most successful post-war mass marketing home advertising campaigns in US history by General Electric and Westinghouse.
After a tumultuous couple of years, we want to live better too, and reconnect. Through a dynamic and dangerous process of destruction and renewal, we translate electricity into a system of abstract visual language as we draw with electricity in an unpredictable method that creates one of a kind works as the electricity fuses with the image.
By using Lichtenberg burning (fractal burning) to discharge electricity through our
artwork, we give a nod to the Surrealist’s process of “automatic drawing.” Fractal burning was discovered by a German Experimental Physicist, George Lichtenberg (1742 – 1799) who also authored The Waste Books. The performative burning technique requires a unique collaboration between us and two points of electricity, resulting in beautiful fractals of charred deposits from electrical currents.
This work is about memories, home, histories, and a fusing of science and art.
