About
HeHe
HeHe, Helen Evans (UK, 1972) and Heiko Hansen (Germany, 1970), are an artist duo based in Le Havre, France. Part of a generation growing up in suburbia during the 1980 & 90's, their work questions the social, industrial and ecological paradoxes found in today's technological landscapes. Using humour, romance and ingenuity, their work opens alternative readings to the narrative of ecology versus industry. With backgrounds in engineering, industrial design, computation and scenography, HeHe engage in collaboration with people from many disciplines. Their art works are crafted to invite the public to interact and immerse themselves within a cinematic scene. Their long term projects create independent research processes, on subjects such as transportation and pollution, leading to practical art productions and writing. HeHe have installed large-scale works in public space. Their monumental project Nuage Vert, which beamed a laser light onto the cloud released by a power plant, won a Golden Nica in Hybrid art at Arts Electronica (2008). Both Helen and Heiko are teaching at the École Supérieur d'Art et Design du Havre where they initiated and are responsible for the Master unit Art Media Environment.
Medias
Truth in fakes
Looking at four works from HeHe's site specific projects that mix fiction and reality. Toy emissions (My Friends all drive Porsches), Fracking Futures, Diamonds in the Sky and If... The Revolt of Tremblay. These works were made in reponse to a specific context, and employ scenography and performance to create an fictional space that is grounded in a particular reality. Although constructed, like theatre or poetry, the viewer is asked to suspend their disbelief and embrace the fiction however implausible. The fiction is an attempt to look laterally at the disorders of contemporary urban life.