Adrian Göllner

Wind-drawing Machine

The intention of the Wind-Drawings is to make a visual record Climate Change in Ottawa, and to do so in a tangible and affecting manner. In Ottawa in 2024 temperature records were broken on several days. On those days I deployed my wind-drawing machines at my downtown Ottawa residence and was able to direct the force of the winds into drawings. The result is a series of complex line drawings that speak to the variability and unpredictability of our current climate.  

Each wind-drawing machine (and there were many incarnations before developing one that worked satisfactorily) captures the force of the wind using an anemometer-like propeller to rotate a central shaft, which in turn drags drawing implements across a paper surface in a circular motion. The latest model of the wind-drawing machine combines a universal gimbal joint with the central shaft to allows for changes in wind direction and gusts to also be recorded. Drawings were created over 3-to-18-hour periods using graphite, paint, inks, silverpoint, and lightfast markers.

Pushing the viewer’s perceptual boundaries is very much part of my artistic approach. We may have a mental image of Climate Change based on media reports from faraway places but being able to see physical traces of something as fleeting and imperceptible as the wind challenges us to consider Global Warming as something local and present.

I brought wind-drawing machines with me to Nigeria, South Korea, and the Val-des-monts area of Quebec in 2025. I will post some of these images soon.

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