Adrian Göllner
Göllner’s practice concerns the transposition of sound, time and motion into other forms.
This has manifested in attempts to cast explosions in aluminum and bronze, but this body of work began more gently as experiments in which traces of the past were conjured out of analogue technologies and made visual. For example, for the Norwegian Wood Drawing (2012), Göllner undertook to divine something of the sadness and brilliance of John Lennon from old Beatles albums by way of a mechanical contrivance that transferred the minute variations of the vinyl grooves onto a paper surface. The resulting series of drawings appear to, even if in a very small percentage, contained true traces of Lennon’s essence.
Indeed, consistent throughout this body of work are methods that allow for the energies, motions and essences at hand to be captured and presented in a seemingly raw and unfettered manner. As such, the Cast Explosions (2015) and small Trinity (2016) pieces are not representations or renditions of explosions, but the actual explosions themselves, albeit in a stilled state. While there is a strong speculative element of this pursuit, the works nevertheless emanate an undeniable aspect of the real, one that lends them reliquary-like presence.
Most recently Göllner has attempted to portend something of our future through the dedicated observance of local bird populations. Göllner’s exhibition All the Birds I Saw Last Year was a graphical listing of the 14,136 bird sightings made between September 18th, 2017 and September 17th, 2018. He continues to explore the project with a series of watercolours.
By charting every bird he saw over the course of one year – no matter how incidental – he looked for rhythms or patterns that might emerge that are telling of the health of our shared environment. As we wade into the Anthropocene Epoch however, the act of observing nature and nature itself has been inexorably altered by human activity. Each of the thousands of bird illustrations is a stand-in for being so particularly evolved and so innately beautiful as to boggle the mind. The unspoken instruction of the exhibition is to be a better observer of one’s surroundings and, by extension, a better steward of nature.
Adrian Göllner - All the Birds I Saw Last Year, ongoing project
Adrian Göllner - All the Birds I Saw Last Year exhibition 2018
Available Works
Twenty-four Warblers, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Collection of watercolours, 26" x 37" x 2" framed
Nine Shorebirds, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Collection of watercolours, 19.5" x 20" x 2" framed
Nine Ducks, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Collection of watercolours, 19.5" x 20" x 2" framed
Average Bird 2017-2018, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Digital Print, 31” x 33”
Average Bird 2018-2019, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Digital Print, 31” x 33”
Watercolour Bird Sampler 1, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Digital Print, 31” x 33”
Watercolour Bird Sampler 2, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Digital Print, 31” x 33”
Watercolour Bird Sampler 3, 2021
Adrian Göllner
Digital Print, 31” x 33”
An explosion 1/1,000,000,000th the power of the first atomic bomb, 2016
Adrian Göllner
Cast aluminum and wire on walnut plinth, 5 1/2" x 2" x 1"
Reconstituted Crayons, 2017
Adrian Göllner
old crayons (wax and pigment)
