High-Voltage Photography—Literally

IT SEEMS like everyone is a photographer these days -- especially with easy-to-use digital cameras capturing summer vacations and sunny evenings. But how many people can say that they do not need light to produce a photograph? Next Friday, Sept. 23, the Gallery will answer this question with Ted Hiebert: Excerpts from the Library of Babel.

Hiebert, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell, uses high-voltage electricity to generate images -- no light needed! The high-voltage imaging process is called Kirlian photography, named after its founder, Russian engineer Seymon Kirlian. Instead of taking a picture of an object that is far away -- a mountain range or friends standing next to a sculpture -- Kirlian photography requires contact between object and photographic film. Thus, this process allows for the condition of the object to register on the film, everything from fingerprints to coffee stains.

When the exhibition opens, viewers will get a close-up look at the results of Hiebert’s Kirlian project -- two years of collecting Jorge Louis Borge’s book Labyrinths, which contains the short story “The Library of Babel.” Each page of each book reveals a different past life, complete with stains, wrinkles, underlining, and past memories waiting to be recreated, reenacted, or remembered.

Ted Hiebert: Excerpts from the Library of Babel

• Opening reception free to the public: Friday, Sept. 23, from 6:00-8:30PM

• Exhibition dates: September 24th – December 3rd, 2011

• Kirkland Arts Center Gallery, 620 Market Street,Kirkland, WA 98033

• Phone: 425-822-7161

• Hours: Monday-Friday 11AM-6PM;Saturday 11AM-5PM

Many thanks to Ted Hiebert for use of his images and his vast knowledge of Kirlian photography.

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Jayme Yahr is the exhibitions director at the Kirkland Arts Center.