The Alchemy of Resistance
This is work made at the artist residency of Core Arts Concord at Core Contemporary Gallery, Las Vegas, NV. December 2022- January 2023.
The residency proposal:
“Not only is there resistance present in physics and circuitry, the term is used to describe blood flow, action within the stock exchange, 'the underground' in war, and used as a measurement in psychiatry. Resistance can be seen as negative, positive, necessary or unnecessary. It is an action. There is an essence of position or stance - a belief. I am interested in exploring the space within resistance where there is a flow and where actions continue to happen despite this friction. What is the force that continues to push? I do not want to limit myself with initial brainstorms of visual work before I do more research but I can imagine doing things like physical resistance as in painting with large endurance based gestures, utilizing wind to represent resistance in friction, maybe doing something with circuitry, resistors and finding measurements and producing equations of resistance from the experiments. For the outcome, I will look to embody resistance by presenting a flow, a calm within a chaos, a liberation, a freedom.”
Frequency, 2023. (in progress)
Jump to Frequency Immersion and A Conclusion lectures.
A Conclusion in the Alchemy of Resistance (artist talk)
THE ADVENTURE
I started thinking about how I could represent a sort of invisible space where resistance lives as in resistance of a sheet blowing in the wind or air flowing through speakers vibrating the material around it.
There is a space between my tiny bluetooth speaker and the paper vibrating with ink.
How do I get in there? How do I represent that space?
Is this about resistance or is it leaning towards the lack-there-of?
At this point it was also floating around in my head that according to quantum mechanics, all particles in the universe have the properties of waves, including all particles we are made from…but wasn’t sure how to deal with that just yet.
So what else can represent a physical resistance?
MAGNETS
Magnets show an effect of the space between where there is an attraction or a resistance.
But how does this work and why does it happen?
Magnets (as do all things including humans) have this thing called an electromagnetic field flowing from one end to the other. And this magical electromagnetic field (EMF) is how objects and living bodies are held together.
An objects EMF that is loose or elastic like water, air or the human body can be more affected by other objects EMFs because it has LITTLE resistance to the flow of charge.
At this point the term Resistance was continuing to be part of the language I was using to describe my work to visitors in the gallery as I was working, but it really was beginning to evolve in meaning for me.
I found humor in this work because of the fact that I did not have direct control of the ink moving around.
In this electromagnetic field, all objects have stored POTENTIAL energy. In other words, all objects are electromagnetic conductors and have the potential to CHANGE when in relative contact with another objects EMF. When there is this change it induces a perpendicular circular magnetic field to the N-S flow called an Eddy Current.
EDDY CURRENTS
This inducted perpendicular field called an Eddy Current was an exciting find because I related it to the visual spiral effect caused by the magnets snapping together. Eddy Currents happen in the space between two electromagnetic fields.
Full Zine:
Eddy Current Series (Quantum Mechanics), 2022-23 details
By Day 4 of my residency, I felt like I had come up with a formula for making visual work representing this moment of change in electromagnetic field and wrote down this sentence -
“The flipping of the magnet is an example of quantum mechanics, which is governed by probability, chance and mysterious entanglements.”
Eddy Current Series (Quantum Mechanics), 2022-23. 26x19”
But is THIS where RESISTANCE resides? I continued to push myself even harder to find more.
I went through days of researching everything from other magnet artists like Nam June Paik and Takis to others like Yves Klein to Alan Watts to Nikola Tesla.
Nikola Tesla was not quoted but known for saying “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of Energy, Frequency and Vibration.”
I definitely got hooked on this idea of Energy, Frequency and Vibration, which brings me back to the quantum mechanics phenomenon that
ALL PARTICLES IN THE UNIVERSE HAVE THE PROPERTIES OF WAVES…
which describes String Theory. And these waves can be measured.
ALL THINGS including human frequencies and brain frequencies.
At this point I had a mental breakdown from so much meticulous research trying to understand String Theory in relation to Nikola Tesla’s theories and magnets and audio frequencies. At an explosively angry point in frustration, I thought, “What the fuck is my brain frequency right now?!?” So I looked it up and painted what I thought my brain frequency might look like.
BRAIN FREQUENCIES
Gamma (Angry), 2022. 26x79”
Theta (Tired), 2022. in progress
Interestingly enough, through the process of painting this Gamma brainwave at High Amplitude, I was able to change my mood or change my brainwaves. And this ALCHEMICAL CHANGE, started to become what I was looking for through the search for resistance.
It also became another formula for producing work so I painted in the many moods I was experiencing in this time.
High Beta (Anxiety Attack), 2022.
Made while in the process of moving - during the holidays - and my 16 year old cat ran away with a solo exhibit deadline fast approaching.
With two main formulaic bodies of work and a deadline approaching, I decided to go back and rely on a familiar style of writing as drawing to process my thoughts into three categories of
ENERGY, FREQUENCY AND VIBRATION
I made a few more magnet pieces with chalk and iron filings and left the industrial magnet on the back of the paper.
Conductor Effect Series, 2022. 10x10”
And I added a subtle but important sculptural piece to layer the wave based ambiance with a String Theory representation of a vibrating particle.
SO…
Waves…the two types of waves are one - electromagnetic waves that are frequencies moving at the speed of light emitted from a source and are either transmitted, reflected or absorbed by another source. Absorption only occurs when the receiving particle has the space to raise it’s frequency or generate heat. This can be considered as more elastic and can take on this stronger frequency or raise it’s own frequency.
This makes the reflection or the resistance of these waves feel even more insignificant at this point. Absorption more importantly is where the change occurs.
The other type of waves is a mechanical wave with a frequency that needs a substance to move through. They also take on the frequency of an intersecting wave in an additive way. A “harmony” of sorts.
And electromagnetic and mechanical waves do affect with one another.
So resistance is just a concept, what it really is is different frequencies interacting with each other. Some objects have higher elasticity than others and objects with more elasticity are the more affected object.
So if the human electromagnetic field is highly elastic then we are highly susceptible to take on any frequency that we come in contact with, whether it’s mechanical or electromagnetic like music or light or heat or a voice or an object.
And RESISTANCE in humans becomes only a mere concept. This lies in source frequencies entraining or taking on another object’s vibration at an unwanted frequency.
A CONCLUSION… from going through an alchemical change while searching for resistance and learning much about frequencies…
I found the potential for change through the electromagnetic and mechanical frequencies that we surround ourselves with.
