SNBA - Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes

Rua Barata Salgueiro 36, 1250-044 Lisboa

12 . 09 . 2024 → 12 . 10 . 2024

monday - friday → 12:00 pm – 07:00 pm

saturday → 02:00 pm – 07:00 pm

Artist

Heidi Morstang

Heidi Morstang uses various optical techniques to seek an understanding of the natural environment in a time of the ongoing climate crisis. She is particularly interested in the connection between micro- and macrocosms, deep time, and the connection to current times. She often works in conversation with other disciplines.

In the series Ringhorndalen and Landscapes of Deep Time, the artist explores the landscape of Svalbard in the High Arctic through remote field work, exploring optical processes through a Scanning Electron Microscope and the camera- less photographic process of cyanotypes.

The series of Electron Micrographs explore the interiors of thin slices of rare flora seeds collected in a valley in Svalbard in the High Arctic. These seeds are unique flora samples stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway.

The seeds were sliced to optically investigate the interior and exterior surfaces with the intention to seek visual resemblances of the territorial landscape of Svalbard. Seeing macrocosm in microcosm inside living seeds in Electron Micrographs, otherworldly landscapes emerged from unknown terrains of the valley. Flora that is dormant shows its promise of endless and timeless worlds within a slice in a frame.

The images offer a distinct visual interpretation of a landscape that we cannot see without the aid of optical devices.

A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) uses a focused beam of electrons instead of light to form an image. The electrons interact with the atoms in the sample and produce various signals that have information about the surface and composition. It is used to create an image of an object at a very small scale and has a very high resolution and depth of field.