Helices
Het Hem
Zaandam, the Netherlands
2020
Helices, 2020
Installation view, het Hem, Zaandam, the Netherlands.
Two videos play simultaneously on a continuous loop, serving as both batons and timekeepers. . A printed schedule documenting the actual feeding process of two snakes is mounted high on an adjacent wall. The third component of the installation is a hole cut into a window, with an object based on Galileo’s notes suspended within it. The three elements form a miniature system of celestial bodies, measurements, and digestive enzymes.
In 1610, Galileo recorded the changing positions of Jupiter’s moons, marking each observation in ink alongside its corresponding time.
These drawings were more than representations of celestial bodies; they were material records of motion, translating astronomical observations into shareable knowledge.
In this piece, a circular hole was cut into a window, and within it, one of Galileo’s notes depicting Callisto has been cast in resin and suspended. Subject to the wind, it moves freely, continuing to interact with its environment as a material that shapes perception and thought.
Callisto, 2020
Glass resin, nylon wire.
Two screens play in a continuous loop; the videos function as timekeepers, each accompanied by a soundscape that amplifies the room’s hypnotic atmosphere. Onscreen, digital reconstructions of real objects rotate slowly and steadily around their axes.
helices 2, 2020
CGI video, wood, speakers.
Photography
©
Fan Liao
Photography © Fan Liao
helices 1, 2020
CGI video, wood, hanging straps, speakers.
Photography ©Fan Liao
The duration of the exhibition is mapped into a graph documenting the feeding and digestion cycles of two snakes living in a pet shop 30 kilometres from the exhibition space, where Mr. Frank works. The different nutritional needs of the two animals determine the intervals between feedings and the time required for each cycle to begin again, generating a pattern that structures the feeder’s weekly routine.
This pattern emerges from the intersection of the snakes’ digestive cycles, the methods of their pictorial representation, and Mr. Frank’s attentive care.
