Haines & Hinterding Haines & Hinterding
Encounter with the Halo Field
- 2009-2015
- Single-channel video, colour, sound, 3 min 38 sec
- Purchased 2015
- 2015/039
David Haines and Joyce Hinterding have always been interested in the invisible energies that surround us, and that curiosity often finds its way into their art. Electromagnetic radiation is in the air all around us, but in this work we see it in action. The artists perform a mysterious dance with fluorescent light tubes under the huge transmission towers near their home in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia. The electrical field created by the towers is strong enough to affect the mercury gas inside the tubes, creating an ultraviolet light that strikes the tubes’ phosphor coating and makes them glow strangely against the night sky.
(Wheriko - Brilliant! 17 May 2019 – 16 February 2020)
Exhibition History
David Haines and Joyce Hinterding have always been interested in the invisible energies that surround us, and that curiosity often finds its way into their art. Electromagnetic radiation is in the air all around us, but in this work we see it in action. The artists perform a mysterious dance with fluorescent light tubes under the huge transmission towers near their home in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia. The electrical field created by the towers is strong enough to affect the mercury gas inside the tubes, creating an ultraviolet light that strikes the tubes’ phosphor coating and makes them glow strangely against the night sky.
Related
film
Energies: Haines & Hinterding
See, hear, smell and feel the invisible energies that surround us as Australian artists David Haines and Joyce Hinterding summon unseen forces.
David Haines and Joyce Hinterding live and work in the Blue Mountains. Hinterding is fascinated with energetic forces, while Haines is drawn to the intersection of hallucination and the environment. Both artists are captivated by the unseen energies that surround us and seek to reveal them to audiences through their work. Science, the occult and philosophy are important elements of their practice.
Haines & Hinterding’s art incorporates sound, installation, video, performance, sculpture, photography and drawing. Many of their recent works also use computer game technologies. This is the first comprehensive survey of their work and includes immersive virtual 3D environments for visitors to explore and navigate.
Commentary
Energies and Apparitions
This essay was written by curator Anna Davis for the Energies: Haines & Hinterding exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia in 2015.
The art of David Haines and Joyce Hinterding is characterised by its openness to the unseen forces that permeate human experience. Very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, television signals, paranormal events, satellite transmissions and psychic energies are all manifest within their work, which aims to summon these hidden realms and bring them to our senses. Using experimental and traditional media, they engage in an artistic dialogue with science, intersecting with areas such as electronics, solar research, geology, olfactory chemistry and high-energy physics. Aesthetic and metaphysical concerns are equally vital to their practice, which also traverses speculative and esoteric domains such as Reichian orgone energy and Kirlian ‘spirit’ photography.
Interview
The World is an Abstracting Machine
Australian artists David Haines and Joyce Hinterding live and work in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. Working in a collaborative partnership as Haines & Hinterding, they explore the unseen energies that surround us through an artistic practice that incorporates science, the occult and philosophy. Bulletin editor David Simpson spoke to the artists in October 2016.
