Aurora Textualis

Ted Hiebert

March 7 to April 4, 2009

For Aurora Textualis Hiebert has electrocuted pages from books about werewolves, speaking in tongues and Atlantis, as well as philosophy texts by Roland Barthes, Alfred Jarry, Antonin Artaud and Julian Jaynes. In this body of work, the artist has used Kirlian photography, a process that involves exposing objects to a high-voltage, low-current electrical charge. This amplified voltage results in a coronal electric discharge (also called “bio-field” or “aura”) from the object, which is documented on large format colour film. Rejected by the scientific community because of unpredictable and unverifiable results, Kirlian photography is often culturally romanticised as visual proof of inner energy. And, while there is basis for this interpretation, the process itself is also fundamentally violent—electrocuting objects for the sake of image generation. In this, Aurora Textualis explores the complexities and paradoxes of this process as both representation of spiritual life and token of electrified death.

Ted Hiebert is a Canadian visual artist and theorist. His artworks have been shown across Canada in public galleries and artist-run centres, and in group exhibitions internationally. Recent exhibitions include Mediated Selves (Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC), Erosions 2008 (Siauliaia Art Gallery, Lithuania) and Chroniques de l’autoportrait (La Salle Augustin-Chénier, Ville-Marie, QC). Recent collaborative projects include Dowsing for Failure (with Doug Jarvis, Open Space, Victoria, BC) and the 2008 World Telekinesis Competition (Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria, BC). His theoretical writings have appeared in The Psychoanalytic Review, Technoetic Arts, Performance Research and CTheory as well as in invited book chapters, catalogues and exhibition monographs. Hiebert is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture at the University of Victoria.