Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand «Hydrogeny»

Shedhalle / Exhibitions / Live Wire / Artists

Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand (RUS/NL): Hydrogeny, 2010 (photo)

Hydrogeny
Electrochemical installation, 2010

Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand work with scientific experimental set-ups and turn them into aesthetic events. Thus, they not only make visible and audible what usually takes place behind closed laboratory doors, they furthermore bring back public attention to scientific questions without stripping them of their magic and their inexplicability.
“Hydrogeny” is an installation involving the electrolysis of water, the well-known process decomposing water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) by passing an electric current through the water. Certain modes of electrolysis can set free more energy than is needed to trigger it and have, therefore, for years been discussed now as one way to store power, something that is considered practically impossible. The questions were subjects of highly controversial debates.
We can see bubbles rising, their movements and acoustic vibrations, caused by electrolysis. A laser illuminates the moving bubbles, showing their range of colours. The topic of the artists’ scientific and artistic set-up is the transformation of energy and shows impressively that nature would yield everything: “In the seas and oceans, the lingering presence of electromagnetic fields photonically imparted by the sunlight, triggers the electrolysis responsible for most of the Earth’s hydrogen. An essential form of photosynthesis, solar water splitting is the cleanest and most efficient means imaginable for generating and storing energy.” (Domnitch/Gelfand)

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