Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
07 October / 12 November 2023

CAMERON ROBBINS
Anemograph de l'Ortenbourg series

Anemograph - Anemos was the Greek God of the Winds. A graph is a kind of drawing. An anemometer is a device used for measuring wind speed. Anemograph - an anemometer that makes a graphic recording of the wind.

The Anemograph is a kinetic sculptural drawing instrument, operating in a space related to Land Art and en plein air landscape artmaking. They use light to draw in spacetime, captured by long exposure photographs.

The anemograph responds to wind speed and wind direction but also describes conditions such as location, landscape, topography, atmospheric conditions, and time. These landscape drawing instruments are designed to be portable to set up in different locations. Wind-cups make a turbine which then transfers mechanical wind energy into the main axle and along a flexible, wind-oriented drawing arm mounted on swivels and wind vanes. This energy then motivates a single light - a warm orange incandescent torch bulb or cool bluish LED (not electric wind powered - because the kinetic energy is used instead and exclusively to create the drawing in space) - at the tip of the arm that traces an ephemeral drawing in space and time.

The Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Alsace, France - FRAC Alsace - acquired the kinetic sculpture work Anemograph into their collection in 2022/2023, along with a wind drawing and a photographic work Leanganook Interstellar Emu. As part of the summer program there, Cameron Robbins delivered the Anemograph personally (packed into an air travel golf bag) and arranged to do a site activation. With the Director, Felizitas Diering they found a good site locally in the region - a pair of ruined castles at about 450m elevation just outside the city of Sélestat. Chateaus Ramstein and de l’Ortenbourg are maintained ruins accessible by day hike. Ortenbourg castle was built in the 1200s and destroyed in the French Revolution in the 1790s, standing as a mixed monument to the rich and to the oppressed.

On the night of Friday, June 2, 2023, Robbins set up the anemograph on a rocky hill behind Ortenbourg and made this series of long exposure photographs from before sunset to midnight. It was the night of the full moon. Usually, Robbins would avoid this for night projects - so the stars are more visible - but this time other factors made this the only night available. The rising moon made a very nice narrative as it moved across the sky behind the castle and marked different moments in this wonderful night.

The wind picked up and Robbins was able to make this series of works, ranging in exposure times from 2 seconds to 465 seconds/around 8 minutes.

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