“It’s been wet lately, hasn’t it? Really wet. So wet, in fact, that two artists got bogged on the way to their opening at Kellerberrin last Saturday, arriving only after being dug out by a few of the locals. Still that’s what you get for cloud busting and playing around with orgone energy. For the past month in Kellerberrin, David Haines and Joyce Hinterding have been chasing atmospheric phenomena in the way someone else might fish for trout. Through hope, coaxing, and a fair degree of positive thinking, Haines and Hinterding have been siphoning sexual energy into the Wheatbelt. Yes, this is cultish, but don’t be alarmed, it’s all in the name of creating rain.
In the 1940s and 50s in the American State of Maine, Wilhelm Reich was investigating the existence in the atmosphere of what he called ‘orgone’ energy. Reich at one stage was part of Freud’s inner circle in Vienna and many of his psychoanalytical methods are still used today. But in the course of time and on a different continent Reich turned his attention to more esoteric issues and in the process, many would argue, instigated the greatest sexual revolution in human history. His inquiry into universal sexual energy and its application through something called the orgone accumulator also saw him hounded by the FBI. In the end Reich’s inventions were confiscated, his life’s writings burnt and he died in jail. Something tells me there was more to this man than meets the eye.
As with all good contemporary art, Haines and Hinterding at the International Art Space Kellerberrin Australia (IASKA) is thick with research and high on the sub-culture factor. These two are by no means the only artists in the world interested in Reich’s theories but their application of his ideas is timely and offers more than a tongue-in-cheek look at the esoteric history of art.”
(via The West Australian)