Leah Heiss

My work was featured in the Sydney Morning Herald today - find link here

Am really pleased - it really contextualises my practice work leading up to the residency outcomes. Yay!

I’ll be having a solo exhibition at RMIT Gallery in November opening on the 6th and running until the 27th. Here is the official blurb:

liminal of or relating to the limen or threshold

liminal is a body of work that has been developed at the threshold of art + science. Leah Heiss has spent the past 10 months working with nanotechnologists to develop wearable works which address the emotional in therapeutic design. The outcome is a collection of jewellery scale artefacts and vessels which are both delicate yet compelling in their curative applications.

Two primary collections will be exhibited during liminal: diabetes + arsenic. diabetes is a range of jewellery which works in tandem with NanoVic’s transdermal patches that allow insulin to be administered through the skin, replacing syringes. arsenic encompasses a series of vessels which act to remove arsenic from water and are designed for people in transit in areas where arsenic is prevalent in well water (e.g. India, Bangladesh, United States).

As an artist Leah is interested in augmenting the emotional relationship between people and their cherished possessions through the agency of nanotechnology. liminal questions how we might ‘enable’

I will be heading to Belgium in November to be part of the in.tangible.scape.s exhibition in November. I have been invited to exhibit the outcomes of my recently completed AIR residency with Nanotechnology Victoria (supported by ANAT + Arts Victoria) at the in.tangible.scape.s exhibition, being held as part of the conference. The exhibition will also be the launch of the in.tangible.scape.s book being published by Addict Creative Labs http://www.addictlab.com) which features my residency prototypes.

I’ll also present at IMEC in Leuven a couple of days after the conference. IMEC is a leading international nanotechnology research centre which focuses on next generation technologies. They have partnered with Addict Creative Labs to develop the in.tangible.scape.s exhibition and book. This event will be open to the public, the research community and Addict Lab’s extensive creative network.

I have just had confirmation that I have received a $10,000 Australia Council Visual Arts Grant to develop new jewellery based projects with Nanotechnology Victoria. This project has a really different focus to the Subtle Technologies residency as it is more focused on material exploration. Here is the meta-blurb (blog coming soon):

Material Poetic
In this project I will create jewellery from materials engineered at the nanoscale. As an artist I am interested in augmenting the emotional relationship between people and their cherished possessions through the agency of nanotechnology.

The intimate scale prototypes I will develop utilise materials that exist at the extremes of the poetic spectrum: Aerogel - which is 99.8% air; carbon nanotubes - one of the strongest materials on earth; shape change alloys - which manipulate form when warmed; and magnetic fluids - which change shape in the presence of a magnetic field. Thus the jewellery to be created will defy our understandings of matter and its expected behaviour. It will draw from and intensify ideas of delicacy, longevity, fragility and mutability which intimate jewellery often symbolises.

‘Material Poetic’ will build from an existing body of work that I have developed over the past 8 months as an artist in residency with Nanotechnology Victoria. This current project ‘Subtle Technologies’ has investigated imbuing jewellery with therapeutic applications. My residency has necessitated that I develop new modes of artistic practice. This innovation in tools and techiques will intensify through ‘Material Poetic’ as the materials I will be working with require a completely new arsenal of working methodologies.

Through this project I am seeking to develop a series of small scale artefacts for exhibition in addition to a broad range of less tangible outcomes: innovation in arts practice, new ways of engaging in arts/science
collaborations, the potential demystification of nanotechnologies, and innovation in technical and material processes.