Nicolai Howalt Exhibition

Edel Assanti is pleased to present Nicolai Howalt’s new series, Light
Break, the first solo exhibition of Howalt’s work in London. Light Break presents an investigation into the symbolic meaning and healing effect of light. The body of work takes as its focus the late nineteenth century revolutionary research into “light therapy” undertaken by doctor and Nobel laureate Niels Finsen. Finsen deduced that certain wavelengths of light could have beneficial medical effects for a number of otherwise incurable conditions. Through
collaboration with the Medical Museion in Copenhagen, Howalt was able to access the vast archive relating to Finsen’s research, unseen in storage for almost a hundred years.

Light Break combines photo-documentation of crucial aspects of Finsen’s archive with an endeavour to capture through the medium of photography the colour and expression of ultraviolet light, invisible to the human eye. The seemingly abstract images in the series are the documentation of Howalt’s process of channelling ultraviolet light rays through crystal prisms, a methodology employed in Finsen’s medical practice to treat damaged tissue.

Wax masks of the faces (“moulages”) of each patient who underwent phototherapy were produced as a record of the treatment’s progress. Improper storage conditions have meant that the moulages, also recovered from the archives by Howalt, have an abnormal, further distorted appearance. The documentation of these masks, and various filters used by Finsen in his manipulation of light, accompany the experimental works, presenting a critical engagement with a fascinating historical moment.