Strange Birds
Cal Poly is pleased to present Strange Birds, a multi-faceted show by Interdisciplinary artist Heidi Neilson. The show is open from Nov. 7 to Dec. 6 in the University Art Gallery in Dexter, blg. 34. An opening reception and talk are set to take place on Nov. 7 from 5-7pm, with the talk commencing at 5:30 in the gallery.
Satellites, nicknamed “birds” in aerospace and ham radio circles, are critical to our lives but are essentially invisible. Heidi Neilson’s exhibition Strange Birds uses video, electronics, prints, photographs and book works to investigate our relationship with satellites. The different works expose the relationship from different angles—our history and future visions—as well as how these orbiting devices extend our sensory capacities and allow us to participate in environments which we would be unable to perceive well, or even survive at all, ourselves.
Bio
Heidi Neilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between people on the ground and off-planet conditions and infrastructure. She works in multiple mediums including radio transmissions, sound, prints, books, sculpture, electronics, and video. She is currently co-operating Here GOES Radiotelescope, a sculptural receiving station for the GRB transmission from GOES-16, a NOAA weather satellite, and mining the volumes of earth observation and space weather data collected by the station for a variety of projects. Other recent work includes Moon Arrow, a mechanical sculpture which continually points at the moon, and Sonic Planetarium, an immersive sound installation made from recordings of orbiting satellites.
From the New York Foundation for the Arts, Neilson is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts and a 2015 Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work. Neilson has been awarded Individual Artists grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (2024, 2022), a Media Assistance Fund for Artists Grant—New York State Council on the Arts in Partnership with Wave Farm (2018), Art Matters Grant—Art Matters Foundation (2013), and Individual Artist Support—New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Queens Council on the Arts (2021, 2018, 2007). She has been awarded artist residencies at the NYC Urban Field Station, SPACES, Wave Farm, Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, Provisions Library, Elsewhere, Lower East Side Printshop, Center for Book Arts, Visual Studies Workshop, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and her artist books and other works are held in over 100 collections, including those of the Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Institute of Art, Columbia University, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and Yale University. Writing about her work has appeared in Hyperallergic, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Popular Mechanics, among others.
Neilson holds a BA in biology from Reed College and an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. She is a board member of Wave Farm, teaches art and design at Parsons School of Design | The New School, and lives and works in New York. Her ham radio call sign is KD2ESI.