ART
Nick Laessing |
Written 15 June |
Tuesday 16 June, 18:00Galerie PAUL FRÈCHES, 75018 [map]Nick Laessing
The work of London born Nick Laessing is very research based and his discoveries and experiments are as much scientific as they are artistic in his search for answers to unproven scientific phenomena. Whether it’s a machine or a film, these investigations pay homage to past innovations. In 2004 Laessing recreated a prototype of the revolutionary invention of John Bedini’s “perpetual motion machines”; a ‘free energy’ generator. Constructed in clear Perspex and brass, it claims to charge a bank of batteries by supplying more power to the batteries than is required to keep it running. Laessing continues to experiment with this principle, each new machine an improvement on the last. (Power Station 2008).
His latest film Excerpts from a diary (2007) is a portrait of
Viktor Grebennikov, a russian biologist who died in 2001 and who was a professional entomologist and naturalist who claims to have discovered the phenomena of anti gravity, thanks to an insect specimen. Voice figures (2007) was born from Laessing’s fascination of singer Margaret Watts Hughes, who in 1885 invented the eidophone to translate the vibrations of her voice into patterns on a glycerin-coated elastic membrane.
« My work is inspired by obscure scientific discoveries, often forgotten, even scorned. The experiments of these scientists and amateurs are an ideological and romantic quest for the origin of a paradox between intuition and scientific rationalism. My reconstructions and experiments are the fruit of in depth research which examines, in a very precise way, the notes and examples of scientific inventions. The works are born from the processes and pay homage to the individuals from whom the spirit wavers incessantly between genius and naivety.”
| What: | Nick Laessing |
| When: | Tuesday 16 June, 18:00 |
| Where: | Galerie PAUL FRÈCHES, 12, rue André Barsacq 75018 [map] |
| Transport: | Abbesses |
| Cost: | 0EUR |
| Phone: | +33(0)1 53 09 21 12 |
| Web: | www.paulfreches.com/ |
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