Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer

Anna and Leon have been working together since the 90's working on commission based projects where background research is required in order to make their installations. They also have worked with museum archives and collections depending on their briefs set.

The pair like to work with illusions, ambiguity and facades. In 2018, they worked on an installation commissioned by Absolutely Cultured for Urban Legends: Northern Lights. This installation was set up in Hull Minster and Holy Trinity Square- the piece was called Ship of the Gods. Working with the Norwegian Mapping Authority, they were able to create a 3D LED light installation of a huge ship. The piece was based on the urban legend of Skidbandir: a shaeshifting, flying ship which could carry equipment for the Gods, but could also be shrunk down and put into a pocket, meaning the equipment could be carried around easily.

This was done by scanning various ships and boats which would then be put together in order to create the final ship. Using a laser scanner which mapped the surface of the ships, a 3D version was created, this was also animated so audiences could see different angles of the ship, different cross sections of ships were also scanned, so multiple images of the final ship could be seen.

Anna and Leon also worked on an installation called The Rows, this was commissioned by Chester Civic Trust and Cheshire West & Chester for Open Heritage Days in 2017. This project asked the pair to respond to the rows in Chester city centre, a beautiful feature reminding visitors of the history of the city. The installation was set up in Booth Mansion, a small shop found along the rows in Chester, where videos and still images of the patterns of the buildings were overlaid on top of the buildings and daily life that Chester was like in 2017. The final images were almost kaleidoscope-like in their designs and produced beautiful, explosion-like patterns. It was ultimately inspired by a story in 1772 where a puppet-theatre on the rows had exploded due to a Guy Fawkes Night accident.

Pictured above is a still image of the Ship of the Gods installation.