Helen Anahita Wilson: linea naturalis (we are all bioelectrical beings)

Small Gallery are hosting a multi-sensory art event featuring sound artist Helen Anahita Wilson's 'linea naturalis', visual artist Lisa Chang Lee and dessert artist Xinyi Li.

Bioelectricity is generated by a variety of biological processes in all living cells. We are all bioelectrical beings.

Every single sound in linea naturalis is derived from natural bioelectricity and micro-electrical fluctuations in plants with medicinal and healing properties: petals, leaves, trunks, and branches. With 30 parts of the bioelectricity recordings converted into musical data tracks, sound artist Helen Anahita Wilson assigned an instrument to each of these parts. She then applied compositional processes of editing and development to create the unique piece of plant-derived music. Linea naturalis is 45 minutes long.

On the early Sunday afternoon of 25 Feburary 2024, Helen Anahita Wilson's linea naturalis will animate the space of Small Gallery, where visual artist Lisa Chang Lee's solo exhibition 'Wind Dwellers' is currently on display. This site-specific exhibition includes a set of newly commissioned hand-painted bronze sculptures of birch tree leaves. Most intriguingly, Helen Anahita Wilson's music resonates with Lisa Chang Lee's 2023 remix of the audiovisual installation Serenade of the Woods, which is also derived from a set of plants. In Lisa Chang Lee's working process, the movement of different plants in breeze was captured in her video clips, transformed into music notes by the computer, and eventually played out by musicians - it was a collaboration between nature, machine, and human.

Dessert artist Xinyi Li will bring a gustatory dimension to the acoustic and visual stimuli of the event. Xinyi selected three plants featured in Helen Anahita Wilson's music - ginger, peppermint, and poppy seeds - to make madeleines and cookies specifically for this occasion. Each dessert she creates is a chapter of its own, blending heritage with a pinch of the unexpected.

Participants are encouraged to walk around the gallery space while listening to music. The event, including the purpose-made snacks, is free to all but booking is essential as places are limited.

Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/helen-anahita-wilson-linea-naturalis-we-are-all-bioelectrical-beings-tickets-818374158137?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Event Schedule:

25 February 2024 Sunday (London Time)

1:00 PM Door opens

1:30-1:40 PM Helen Anahita Wilson, Sound Artist Talk

1:40-1:45 PM Xinyi Li, Dessert Artist Introduction

1:45-2:30 PM Music

2:30-3:00 PM Tea time

About the Artists:

HELEN ANAHITA WILSON is an Oram Award-winning composer, sound artist, pianist, improviser, and practice-based researcher at SOAS University of London. Her compositional practice brings together her research in South Asian music, especially South Indian rhythmic theories, with expressions of biomedical processes, interpretations of plant biodata, and experiments in sonic life writing: how to share biographical stories through sound. She has toured extensively throughout Europe and India and works across a broad spectrum of disciplines from solo piano projects to live extended radio arts and plant-derived installations. Latest commissions include Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Brighton Dome and Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, and her work has recently been featured on BBC Radio 4's Today, BBC 6Music, and New Scientist.

https://www.helenanahitawilson.com/ 

LISA CHANG LEE is a London and Beijing-based artist and lecturer. After completing a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art from the Central Academy of Fine Art Beijing in 2010, she obtained an MA in Print from the Royal College of Art in London in 2014. She is now an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art Photography and a Visiting Lecturer of MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins, UAL.

Lisa Chang Lee's work explores the complex relationship between nature and culture, as well as our intrinsic connection with the natural world. Lisa Chang Lee works fluidly across mediums and often engages in multidisciplinary collaborations.

In recent years, Lee has exhibited her work internationally, including at M100 Contemporary Art Centre (2018, Chile); Seoul Biennale (2019, Korea); York Art Gallery (2018, UK); Shenzhen/HK Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (2017, China), among others. She has also presented several solo exhibitions and experimental projects at Ginkgo Space (Beijing), San Mei Gallery (London), and Enclave (London). Recent prizes and awards she has received include the nomination for Art Power 100 China (2019, China); Contemporary Art Trust Prize (2019, UK); Runner-up Prize (special mention) for Collective City, Seoul Biennale (2019, Korea); the nomination for Awards of Art China (2018, China); Vivien Leigh Prize from the Ashmolean Museum (2018, UK); and Aesthetica Art Prize shortlist (2018, UK). Her work is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), The Royal Collection (UK), the British Museum (UK), the Ashmolean Museum (UK), and the Metropolitan Museum Library (US).

https://www.lisachanglee.com 

XINYI LI is the creative force behind LI'SBUN and the co-founder & COO at Dreamschool.uk. With a life journey spanning across Asia, Latin America, and Europe, Xinyi brings a unique perspective to the culinary world. In the kitchen of LI'SBUN, Xinyi believes that the magic of food lies in its capacity to evolve and surprise. Here, classic flavours meet a twist of contemporarity, and every bite is a journey from the familiar into the realm of new possibilities.

https://www.lisbun.com