High Voltage Digital Image

Kerry Tunstall

Kerry Tunstall was originally from Kamo, Wanganui. He now lives in Christchurch. After leaving school he completed a welding apprenticeship and worked in the industry for several years before choosing to study for a BFA at Canterbury University which he completed in 2009.  After the 2011 earthquakes he did an apprenticeship as a stonemason, a very sought after trade in Christchurch at the time.

While at art school Tunstall began to use high voltage electricity to make art. These works are termed lightning arc drawings. Lightning arc drawing consists of a conducting back-plate, a sheet of insulation and one or more conducting front electrodes. The front electrodes and the back-plate form the two terminals of the lightning arc drawing. High voltage, 10 – 20 kV is applied to the terminals and the discharge arc creates the drawing.